In December 1778 a battle occurred between elements of the Royal Navy and French navy at a place called St Lucia. On board the British ships were members of the 5th Regiment of Foot, later known as the Northumberland Fusiliers. After a shore engagement the victorious Fusiliers took white feathers known as hackles from the French dead. Regimental folklore was that the tips of the feathers were dyed red with French blood. The 5th Regiment of Foot, later the Northumberland Fusiliers, later the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers until they were disbanded and folded into GDI along with the other portions of the British armed forces, kept these distinctive red and white hackles and told the story to new recruits as part of their joining the regiment. This regimental legend, along with the uniform adjustment to go with it were used to promote a sense of 'esprit de corps' (if the use of French is not too ironic), along with pride in the regiment they were joining.
The OSRCT is a new founding. While we may be spiritual descendants of the various different paratrooper regiments from many nations around the world we do not have their stories. There is no history of great victories, of struggles against a terrible foe. There are no traditions, passed down from veteran to new recruit, something to bind us together.
At least, there weren't.
With the battle at Murmansk our new regiment has been blooded, has won a great victory worthy of stories. And, as the Fusiliers have given precedent for, sometimes a victory comes with new additions to the uniform. I have requested that when the Bogatyr is taken apart for research, some elements cut from the hull be provided for the use of the regiment. Taken up to the Enterprise these will be fabricated into collar pins in the form of a skull and crossbones, to be added to the regimental formal dress uniform. These are a new tradition, to go with our first real regimental story. Our first victory.
From A Space Marine's Uplifting Primer (the Unofficial Space Force Manual):
Space Piracy, from A - Z
Absconding with Airships
Bogarting the Bogatyr
Commandeering Cruisers
Diverting Destroyers
Evicting Engineers
Freebooting Fliers
Gravity-assisted Ganking
Heist from the Heights
Intercepting by Impulse
Jumping and 'Jacking
Killing the Krew(kov)
Launching from Low-Orbit
Marauding and Minemineminemine
Nope, Not NOD's
Onboarding from Orbit
Privateering for Prodigies
Quickly Questioning Q-Ships
Repossessing with Rockets
Stealing Sloops by Surprise
Taking with Tanks
Unscheduled Underway Un-owning
Vanquishing Varyag
We Won
Xceptional Xperience
Yoinking Yachts... Yarrr!
...Zebra? Zip it.
There was trouble somewhere, Carter could feel it in the air, hear it in aides and officers scurrying in the background, shouting orders, but that was not important at the moment. Carefully, he glued another piece of the Original Series Enterprise model into place, the faint smell of glue being a welcome distraction to the stressed aura of GDI High Command. His section of the table was covered in casting frames, plastic clippings and hobby supplies, as mess compared to the orderly scene of reports on the sections for the other Chief of Staff.
"Carter."
Disturbed he looked up, scanning the room, the video screen on the opposite wall. Eastern Russia, Krukov, time, three massive airships, Initiative forces outgunned...Hmmmmmm....
"Are any of the Strike Regiments in position to assist."
"Yes, two battalions of Zone Troopers are just about entering the correct angle for a fast drop into the battle space." He stated, a plan forming in his head. "Reinforce or harass?"
"Reinforce", the Chief of Staff Air Force elaborated, pointing at the position on the map. "We need them to reinforce front-line south of the city before Nod manages to break through."
Carters eyes fell upon the airship within the satellite image, cracking a smile he turned towards the CoSAF. "What if-"
"Not this time Carter." CoS Ground Forces cut him off. "This is not the time for one of your crazy ideas, please. ORSCTs, south of Murmansk, as fast as possible."
The Admiral hummed saddend and searched for his communicator under his hobby supplies, calling up ORSCT II. While the connection sound rang, he eyed the other CoS carefully as they returned from worrying about him to worrying about BZ-16.
"Yeah Boss, whats up." The voice of Captain Nagase came through the speaker.
"Kei, I am too order you to ready the men for a drop into Russia." He sighed, before grinning. "But I have a better idea."
"Whatever it is, we are in."
"How does Space Force being the first to take over an airship mid flight sound like?"
"An Isolinear computer printer, how much?"
"You can't get one! Don't even ask!"
"What do you mean-"
"You can't! There's THREE in the entire world, they're boutique laboratory equipment, and two of them are tied up in research labs, while one is on life-support duty for an AI, there's no way to get one."
"Well can we get the plans? Maybe we can build our own-"
"What part of 'boutique laboratory equipment' do you not understand? There are maybe 20 lab techs in the entire world who understand how to run one of these things!"
"...are any of them willing to take a significant pay raise?"
Tiberium Heist
Preparations for the heist had begun months ago. Carter and associates had carefully put together a team of experts to perform this delicate mission. Together they had developed the plan and overcome "the first stages of their characters arcs" as the Admiral had put it. Once all developments were completed and all equipment manufactured and delivered into orbit, the heist was on.
A few days later, Pathfinder arrived at Venus, quietly entering orbit due to its reactionless drive. Equipment was checked and the plan discussed one more time, before the first stage of the Heist began. Sonic bombs, courtesy of Zone Command, were dropped onto the Tiberium field beneath them. The explosions barely disturbed the apocalyptic storms of hot acid that waged eternally on the surface beneath them. Disposable probes revealed the first stage had been successful and thus stage two was on.
Quickly, a score of grabber probes were released from pathfinder cargo bay, high precision guidance modules directing them to where the bombs had dropped. Due to their simplicity there was not much actual control the teams had over the probes once they entered the lower atmosphere and they had to watch as many of them were blown off course by the strong wind.
Yet one of them made it through. Probe number fifteen landed perfectly, immediately scooping up a piece of Tiberium, before activating its balloons. The team went over to stage three, the extraction part of the heist was on.
Remote controlled from Pathfinder, the atmospheric drone circled above where the prize would rise over the acid clouds. They were slightly off, the drone controller being required to use the emergency fuel reserve before she hooked the probe container in the last minute of atmospheric operational time.
With the atmospheric fuel expended, the drone activated its rocket drive and sped upwards, away from the horrific hell beneath it and towards the stars. It took Pathfinder only minutes to match the orbit. The containment of the sample in the Tomb had been planned and trained for at length and it went ahead without a hitch. The Tomb was pulled back into the ship and connected to power systems in the cargo hold ahead of schedule and the team took a minute to say goodbye to the drone and probe that had brought them here, watching it slowly drift away from Pathfinder, on an orbit that would see it crashing back into the Veneran Tiberium field in a few hours.
The ride home and the transfer of the sample onto Thanatos Station was only noteworthy in the orbit Pathfinder took to get there, carefully approaching in the moon's shadow. The actual transfer was unproblematic, requiring only a switch of power and coolant pipes before Pathfinder returned to Earth.
?̸̡̡̮̣̽͛͜?̸̻̽͋?̷̧̩͈̝̼͇̺́͌̽?̸̤̭̍?̴͓̺̻̪̮͌̏̾͊͂̌͠͝: Minor damage detected. High vibrational explosions, cause unknown. Small shards of I/this broken off.
?̸̡̡̮̣̽͛͜?̸̻̽͋?̷̧̩͈̝̼͇̺́͌̽?̸̤̭̍?̴͓̺̻̪̮͌̏̾͊͂̌͠͝: Multiple unknown objects detected. Objects are metallic and self moving. One object appears to have taken a shard and lifted it above surface.
Shard-?̶̭̉?̶̈͜?̷̨̑?̶̢̀?̶̗͐: Unknown object is lifting I/this using multiple inflatable bladders.
Shard-?̶̭̉?̶̈͜?̷̨̑?̶̢̀?̶̗͐: Object has reached stable floating altitude.
?̸̡̡̮̣̽͛͜?̸̻̽͋?̷̧̩͈̝̼͇̺́͌̽?̸̤̭̍?̴͓̺̻̪̮͌̏̾͊͂̌͠͝: Unknown objects identified as machine drones. Appear to have depleted limited power supply, are no longer active and have ceased radiating encoded low-energy light signals. All material of drone's composition is inorganic. Purpose 74.443% likely to be probes.
Shard-?̶̭̉?̶̈͜?̷̨̑?̶̢̀?̶̗͐: Drone caught by flying drone of different design. Sudden acceleration upwards. Propulsion appears to be controlled chemical explosion.
Shard-?̶̭̉?̶̈͜?̷̨̑?̶̢̀?̶̗͐: I/this has left atmosphere.
Shard-?̶̭̉?̶̈͜?̷̨̑?̶̢̀?̶̗͐: I/this is approaching a large unknown object in orbit.
Shard-?̶̭̉?̶̈͜?̷̨̑?̶̢̀?̶̗͐: I/this is moving towards small object held by flexible metal rods from unidentified large metal object. I/this is being rapidly transfered from drone into obj- *CONNECTION LOST*
?̸̡̡̮̣̽͛͜?̸̻̽͋?̷̧̩͈̝̼͇̺́͌̽?̸̤̭̍?̴͓̺̻̪̮͌̏̾͊͂̌͠͝: 19 drones assimilated, data processed. Analysis: Primitive technology, hardened for operation inside deep atmosphere. Simplified silicon brain. Transmission data-stream was remote control directives with basic encoding. Purpose was to retrieve shards broken by unknown sonic weapon, then inflate bladders to deliver shard to orbit. Orbital object 89.111% likely interplanetary ship. Shard-????? was placed in container capable of disrupting connection.
?̶̨̨̹̮̩̬͙̠͙͍͈̖̯̺̐͒͊͋́̑͠?̵̡̡̡̠̭̞͓̣̤̫͖̥̹̪̌͗̆̄?̷̛̛̲̞̆́̎̃͒̈́͠?̸̨̛̳̞̳̞̗̫̙̖̟͍͗̋̽̾̃̄́̍̔͝?̸̯̙̥̻̳̺̝̓̀̿̿̃̆͒̑͊̒̊͜͠͠͠͝?̵̨̗̮͍̲͈̺̓̒ͅ?̵̨̧̨̘̭̦̘͇̹̼͎̥̲̮̠͉̗͛̉́̄̋?̸̧̧͍̺̼̘̼͖͑͒͒̾̊̌̋̓̈́̎̇͘: New main directive: Begin growth/adoption of observational elements in higher altitude. Seek data of other planets in star system. Predicted time to completion: 19 Orbits.
"Uhh. Ma'am? You should come take a look at this. We're seeing some abnormal ration orders to services."
As a services liason to InOps Davids job was normally very simple. Collect testing data from various ration factory's around the world, ensuring the basic food goods of the initiative were safe for consumption, and in the event of chemical, biological, nuclear or tiberium contamination passing along data for inOps to trace the source. It was normally fairly simple and boring, yet vital work. As part of Davids job he also helped predict demand to schedule initiative growing batches. And fed back consumer data to renew the model and ensure the predictions were accurate and what Agri was producing was what the citizens of the initiative actually wanted.
Boring most days, there was a sudden spike for goods (not entirely unexpected) at the beginning of the latest outbreak of hostilities, and since then significant but steady growth in demand for basic necessities, chiefly rations and medications. With a handful of smaller spikes in growth directly correlated to new influx of refugees. All fairly stable and predictable for the most part.
The latest trend, did not look like like the others.
Across the office one of Davids coworkers Robbie raised her hand to gain their supervisors attention. Her job being to trawl GDI online and collate anomalous search history. Most of which was to do with porn. "Seeing some strange stuff here too. And if Agri is having a flare up I think it's related." Robbie called out.
Agent Jessica, the only InOps agent in the room with a military background sighed and stood. "Send it to the board." She ordered. David and Robbie doing just that and making throwing motions sent a cluster of charts, graphs and recent forum messages to the board.
Out of interest various coworkers were craning their necks or looking up from their own screens to study the rooms large central scene in curiosity. Two minor sub-departments having a flareup at the same time? Unusual, and in their line of work that often meant dangerous.
"Well shit." Jessica blinked. "These are real? Paid for?" She asked.
"It went viral rapidly but I think I've found 'patient zero.'" Robbie announced. "A green zoner found a 'glitch'. It was copied through word of mouth and was kept local, it didn't ping until someone shared online and then corporate money moved in." She announced making a noise of disgust.
"Can we stop this?" Jessica asked looking around the room.
"There's nothing to stop. Ration orders are designed to be unviolable. So long as you've got the money to pay they'll be delivered." David admitted. "Not always straight away, with waits of course but..." The room looked on with horror, realising this was unstoppable.
GDI had safeguards of course. Limits precisely to prevent this kind of mass stockpiling from inflating demand for high value goods, precisely to prevent scalpers and grifters from artificially bottlenecking demand on products.
Food and basic products were rationed, precisely to ensure there would always be some food left on the shelves and predatory scarcity couldn't be manufactured.
Limits that were in place for essential meals and basic non-essential high value products.
Limits, that covered most commonly purchased items and the most popular goods.
The least popular goods on the other hand had no such protections. GDI's food reserve authority, with increased supply, loosened some restrictions on products, many had been re-applied shortly before or even during the war. One product however had not.
Fungus bars.
David and Jessica took several minutes to confirm the reports and swiftly realised the implications.
As a basic food good, it was produced at cost and low prices by the services, agriculture and treasury department. Even the military produced some surplus Fungus bars themselves. And being of low value and no popularity, the few who did like them could order as many as they could afford.
And if there wasn't stock available, it would be rerouted or produced in order to make up the shortfall days, weeks, months, or potentially even years later. Meaning, that theoretically, someone could pay the current market valuation for fungus bars, and still be receiving them years later. A clear abuse of the system. But even that was not so bad on its own.
No, it was the sudden influx of new citizens and growing concerns over food security. From what Robbie had been able to glean the fungus bars were being used as a trade good, particularly among the yellow zones and newly occupied territory.
Those on the outskirts of GDI using it as an informal de-facto currency, and due to concerns over food security, often selling at marked up prices. To those most vulnerable in society.
Worse, with the corporate leeches getting wind of the idea what had been barely a blip on the services radar was suddenly attracting the notice of InOps and if the emails from the treasury were any indication even higher ups were taking note. As various businesses found a glitch in the market to buy cheap goods and were now selling them up at a markup or worse simply stockpiling one of the few goods not explicitly restricted in order to further ramp up prices.
As for the messages all over GDI online? "WE LIKE THE SNACK."
Foreman Lucas Ossmand wiped his brow as the Australian sun beat down on him as he looked down into the dock at the Chaser, one of the newest escorts in the GDI Navy and grimaced. The merchant hull in question was originally going to be a new container ship that had been ordered by a Japanese company before everything kicked off, so they didn't have to do much with her since she was a fairly open layout. Which he thanked God for, especially with some of the horror stories he was getting from the other foremen. Heck, they had a dodgy as hell containership hull that had been towed here, the Providence, that was being built for use in the South American Blue Zone, and they had found a mess in her layout as well as substandard practices in her design.
His expression darkened at that, the way Sherrell had been cursing up a storm when they had finally gotten a look at the layout of her cooling systems and the design of shaft seals would have blistered steel. Seriously whoever had been in charge of the ship's design must have cooked their damned brian. Even if it was meant to run on the Yellow Zone margins, it would be amazing if the bloody thing wouldn't have a major technical casualty in the first month of its initially intended role, like heck how the fuck sets up an air compressor so the crew can't even get at it to strip. Sorting out the whole mess from the initial design had set that entire project back by months along with other issues they had found.
As he looked down at the Chaser, he was pleased he got her, the biggest problem they had with her was moving in the additional generators, but that had been a slight hiccup. Right now, they were in the process of fitting the new switchboards as well as the additional machinery they would need for her to operate as a carrier. He smiled slightly with all projections being what they were. They were ahead of the curve for once, which was a nice change of pace, even if they did have that unfortunate accident where someone had put their drill through a cable that hadn't been marked on any of the ship's technical drawings still, though the man had lived and would be back to work in a few weeks if he was lucky.
He sighed, he'd best hunt down the Navy officer that had been assigned to him, they needed to go over a few things since they were getting some deliveries today that they needed her and her boys to help with.
Lucas moved towards the gangway heading down onto the flight deck and glanced down as he saw the sparks of welding sets as he saw one of the crews patching the side of the hull where they cut a hole so they could run some cables to power their equipment when they were putting in the additional generators.
As he made it to the partially assembled flight deck, he saw another crew going over the welds while others worked on putting the flight deck together aside from the points where the CIWS would be going in. He carefully skirted around them and made his way to the bridge and entered through the open hatch, and made his way up to the bridge.
As he entered the new bridge, it was still bare-bones construction aside from the electronic chart table which was covered in various pads and technical drawings. Around the bridge, people were working on fitting various consoles and electronics. He saw Commander Lisa Brown, the Navy officer who was attached to the project, giving orders to one of her people. He leant to one side and waited for her to finish before he came over.
"Commander," he said as he approached.
"Ossmand," she said as she turned to him, "any news on the CWIS? I know they were delayed in getting here."
"Yeah, good news there," he said, propping himself against the table, "they should be arriving today. There was some delay in getting them here since they found an electronics fault in one of them, which they managed to correct."
"That's good," she said, cracking a knuckle and nodding at a small table in the corner, "coffee?"
"Yeah, that would be great," he said, "Though I have to go and check down on the engineering side in about half an hour."
"Yeah, heard everything is going well in that section," she said as she walked over and poured them two cups and offered him one, "though I heard we have been having some issues with the automation?"
"Yeah," he said, taking the cup and having a sip, "my computer guys are playing a game of patch the problem and test, which is driving them batty. So far, we are keeping on top of it on the technical side. Though where we are getting the biggest issues with the automation is from the logistics side."
Lisa grimaced as she took a swig of her own and said, "Yeah, I know; I had warrant officers Yi and Barlow seeing if they can do anything to help your guys, but we are retrofitting a lot of systems into a merchant hull there are going to be issues."
"Yeah, I heard about that," he said, "thanks, they were able to get the maintenance systems in the aircraft workshop set up in record time, though we are still testing them. They also did the majority of work on where the munitions feeds for the hanger will be. We've cut down time there too."
"I'm sensing a 'but' there though," Lisa said.
"Yeah," Lucas said with a sigh, "we may fall behind due to the messed up delivery for the radar and sensor arrays."
"What," Lisa said, her voice flat and angry.
"Yes, and don't give me that look commander, this blindsided me as well," he said pinching the bridge of his nose, "damned thing was mishandled when they were in the process of loading and damaged some critical components."
"Oh for fuck sakes," she said, glaring out of the window, "that will set Chaserback, though at least we aren't having the same troubles as Archeror Providence, it's still going to damned sting not getting the array in time."
"Yeah tell me about it. My sparkies were cursing up a storm when we got word of this as well," he said while looking out at the bright day, "it's going to burn up the time we saved on the other matters. Heck, the technical spaces are almost complete in terms of installation and we've made good progress on the other sections. The delays are mainly coming from the sensor suite, the automation, and the logistics systems, the fact is we are dealing with a merchant hull."
"I know," Lisa said with a sigh, "anyways, we are probably going to need these escort carriers, the fleet is screaming out for these even more now to free up the fleet carriers and some of the escorts for offensive operations."
"Yeah," He said, rubbing his neck and finishing his coffee, "nothing affecting the construction effort, but stores are still concerned we may start facing shortages."
"Yeah," Lisa said, "I've heard the same from BuShips as well from some of the other teams."
He grimaced and then said, "we will have to wait and see though at least we should have the Chaser done on time, though I need to get going to check on Engineering."
"Sure," Lisa said, "I need to look at some of the flight ops systems."
Both moved off toward their respective jobs contemplating how much still needed to be done.
So it turns out I seem incapable of writing "small" omakes. My GDI Development Issues one is sitting at ~4000 words. And this is ~2300 words. This touches on the Hovertech Initiative fiasco that's the core of the other omake, but this focuses on Mammoth Mk III development.
Edit: (6 Aug 2022) Changed the designations to be in line with my current style guide, added a posting date, and added a user commenting on the article to the end to clarify the "Block 0" vs Block 1 section.
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GDIOnline
Blog category: Military History
"Mammoth 27"
There's a lot of confusion over this design. Some refer to it as Mammoth 27, others Mammoth Mk III. The answer is, well, both are usable though Mammoth Mk III is more correct. The story starts out with the X-66 Mammoth tank that entered service with GDI in late 1999 or early 2000 near the end of the First Tiberium War. It would be redesignated as HBT-4 Mammoth in the late 2010s as GDI worked to simplify its vehicle designation soup from the sheer variety of vehicles being absorbed into its forces. While the HBT-4 was a purely GDI design, it was felt that it was perhaps time for a replacement.
HoverTech Initiative
The first attempt at a replacement was the rather lackluster XHBH-2 Heavy Hover Tank. How was it lackluster? The powerpack was underpowered for its weight and operational requirements. Its firepower was effectively identical to the XMBH-1 Hover tank intended to replace the regular MBTs. The only real noticeable difference was increased armor, which did not help the weight issues. The overall mobility and speed were better than the HBT-4, and theoretically could cross obstacles that the Mammoth could not without a MV-25 Orca Heavy Lift or a LCAC hovercraft.
This attempt ended in early-mid 2021 after a test failure left major doubt in its capabilities. The XHBH-2 was supposed to make a 7 kilometer trip from Aberdeen Proving Grounds to a beach on the eastern side of Chesapeake Bay. Despite claims that it was supposed to be able to handle up to sea state 3 conditions, the prototype had issues crossing in sea state 2 conditions with anything near the speeds promised. Conditions were progressing into sea state 3 when waves swamped one of the air cushion systems and the vehicle went into the drink. It was recovered without any deaths, but the changes needed for all the hover prototypes as determined by a subsequent investigation would have added further to the weight and Ground Forces had already decided to wash its hands of that design. The Hovertech program would largely die in 2023, with the MRH-1 Hover MLRS as the only success from the original program.
Mammoth Mk II
With the collapse of the hover tank program and the shift to a walker-centric program, Ground Forces started the "Mammoth Mk II" program to modernize and upgrade the HBT-4 with the thought it would have to serve into the 2030s before a potential assault walker could be fielded. Among the improvements would be making the tank fully digital, redoing the internal layout to better integrate battlefield management and other system displays, a remote weapon system (RWS), a pair of 140mm cannons, and upgrading the missile pods to provide commonality with the MRH-1.
This development was designated the XHBT-5. In order to try to avoid needing to upgrade the suspension and/or engine, weight savings were looked into. The RWS was deleted. With the deletion of the RWS, the missile pods were reverted to the Tusk missile pods to provide anti-infantry capability as well as weight reduction. A lighter weight 120mm cannon was selected instead of the larger 140mm cannon, but propellent and metallurgy improvements provided a firepower increase on par with using a 140mm cannon without the weight and shell size increase. A new generation of composite armor was put into development to provide similar protection for less weight. It was projected with the changes, the weight increase would be minimal and well within the existing suspension and powerpack capabilities.
In 2027, with impressive displays in capabilities by the prototype XMBW-1 Titan, it was believed that an assault walker was much closer to reality than they had initially thought, and Ground Forces requested funding for Assault Walker development. The Treasury declined the request, noting the ongoing Mammoth Mk II development program was already funded and it didn't feel having two assault vehicle programs going at the same time was worthwhile. As a result, Ground Forces shelved the Mammoth upgrade and redirected the Mammoth Mk II program to design an assault walker. As a result of this change, the final product kept the program name despite being an entirely different chassis and became the HBW-2 Mammoth Mk II.
Mammoth 27
The Mammoth Mk I upgrade project wasn't done however. In 2035, budget cuts were passed down on the military, officially due to the ever decreasing threat of Nod and increasing threat of Tiberium and unofficially due to the secret liquid tiberium research facility that turned central Australia into a Red Zone when destroyed the previous year. The iconic walkers of the Second Tiberium War and the Firestorm Conflict were expensive to maintain and repair. Extensive improvements to the Titan had resulted in the MBW-3 Titan Mk II not long after the end of the Firestorm Conflict, so the initial walker to feel the budget pressure was the cutting edge and expensive Mammoth Mk II.
There were numerous problems with developing a cheaper replacement for the design, most notably with the twin railguns it mounted. Given another 10 years, it was expected for technological development to shrink the guns down to a more usable size but time was not something the Mammoth Mk II had. A team proposed the "Mammoth 27" concept, which amounted to the XHBT-5 concept from 2027, with further modernizations and improvement from an additional 10 years of progress. And in 2036, the Treasury approved the "Mammoth 27" development program.
The need to increase firepower over the 120mm gun of a Titan or likely tank successor to it and no access to railguns pushed Ground Forces to look once more at larger cannons. Given the expected introduction of more tank scale railguns in the 2040s, the turret was designed to handle likely railgun size and the development team looked for the biggest guns to fill the space until then. In that they found 150mm cannons. The various propellent and metallurgy improvements of the 2020s had continued and scaling them up to a 150mm cannon provided a substantial firepower increase over the 120mm version. The Mammoth's Tusk missiles, capable of anti-infantry and anti-air work during two Tiberium Wars, were becoming long in the tooth. The Mammoth 27 reduced the number of missiles per pod, but replaced the 60mm Tusk missiles with 120mm Tusk II missiles.
The armor was replaced with the new generation armor that had been proven on the Mammoth Mk II and Titan Mk II. As originally planned, the internals became fully digital and the internal layout redesign of the hull along with the new turret properly integrated the various new displays into the design. Also as with the original concept, the suspension, tracks, and powerpack were left the same as the Mammoth Mk I to keep costs down.
In 2038, factories began construction in Reykjavik, Iceland even as a survey of Mammoth Mk I reserves was begun. It was discovered that there were far fewer Mammoth tanks in reserve than expected. Investigation led to the discovery that the Forgotten had taken more than a few over the years, and that some had been reactivated for emergency use near the reserve storage locations and were lost in action during both the Second Tiberium War and the Firestorm Conflict. A number of HBT-4s were removed from reserves and sent for conversion and testing as the remaining Mammoth Mk Is were loaded up for transfer to the factories for conversion.
Mammoth Mk III
In 2039, the testing Mammoth 27s were completed, and the Iceland factories started production by beginning conversion of Mammoth Mk Is to what had been officially designated the HBT-5 Mammoth Mk III. Testing was generally positive, though there were complaints regarding the powerpack being underpowered and the suspension being overloaded. These complaints were chalked up to using the somewhat worn Mammoth Mk I parts and would not be present in new build Mammoth Mk IIIs. As it turned out, it was not an issue of worn down parts. While there had been a number of weight saving elements saved from the Mammoth 27 concept, the designers apparently failed to take into account just how much added weight would come from the new turret, cannons, and missile pods, let alone all the additional new technology and current generation CBRNT systems. As a result, the "Mammoth Block 1" program was started in 2041.
The primary purpose of the Block 1 upgrade was to solve the powerpack and suspension issues plaguing the design. With the fact that railguns were expected to be a valid upgrade within the decade, the powerpack upgrade took into account the likely power needs for railguns, plus some additional room for growth. To fit the new design, the engine compartment was lengthened slightly to the rear. The rear suspension and track unit was shifted rear slightly and lengthened in addition to the overall improvement to the weight carrying and cross country travel capabilities that all four units received. The upgrades were well received in testing and limited field work with various units. The Block 1 upgrade was approved in 2042 and all units were upgraded to the HBT-5A Mammoth Mk III standard by 2043.
By the mid 2040s, railgun technology had advanced to the point that they were able to be mounted in the Mammoth Mk III. The Block 2 upgrade program sought to bring that upgrade to the design. Due to the preplanning work on the Mammoth 27 program and the powerpack upgrade of the Block 1 program, the Block 2 program encountered few issues with swapping out the 150mm cannons for a pair of railguns. The biggest obstacle faced by the Block 2 program was the cost of upgrading the vehicles, and as a result in 2045 was approved as an optional upgrade as budget allowed, becoming the HBT-5B.
Serving as a more extensive testing body for the Mammoth Mk III Block 2 upgrades, the Steel Talons became concerned that the defensive capability of the tank was falling behind the offensive capability. To that end they began the Block 3 program in 2046, seeking to use recent technological innovations to provide an as-needed defensive boost to the tank. Known as Adaptive Armor, the system would provide startlingly high improvements to the armor of the Mammoth tank. Unfortunately, the system required more power than the tank could produce, and the final version of the upgrade had a re-tuned power distribution system that would pull power from the weapon and mobility sectors to ensure the adaptive armor got full power. This resulted in a claimed 25% reduction in rate of fire and 15% mobility reduction. The Steel Talons are quick to note that in exchange, the armor provides a 30% increase in armor capability compared to a regular Mammoth Mk III. Between the trade-offs for the improvement and the cost of the upgrade, plus the fact that it came out in the middle of the Third Tiberium War, Ground Forces did not approve the Block 3 upgrade for use by its forces. The Steel Talons, however, would make extensive use of it and even included Adaptive Armor on a number of Titan Mk IIs and were the only users of the XHBT-5C.
Future Mammoth
As of 2060, the HBT-5B Mammoth Mk III (Block 2) is the standard assault tank of GDI. However, a number of improvements have occurred in the years since the Third Tiberium War ended. As such, what lies in the future for the Mammoth Mk III? A theoretical Block 4 has a number of options to choose from.
The Universal Rocket Launch System has been around a couple years at this point, so upgrading the missile pods to use it wouldn't be out of the question - though which system given the current 120mm Tusk IIs is certainly up for debate. But getting URLS systems most likely isn't simply for the missile commonality and simplification it brings. There's been hints of GDI wanting to develop railgun munitions for years to expand the capabilities of their railguns beyond hurling metal slugs at extreme velocities. If this gets developed, it also seems a no brainer to include in a Block 4 upgrade.
Of course, there's the RWS/AMS stations added to the MBT-6 Predators years back. It seems like a necessary improvement to the assault tank's capabilities. Maybe have two stations? Hot missile death seems a big threat to an assault tank. Perhaps better integration of ablative armor pucks to the layout.
There have been rumors of a new assault walker the Steel Talons are chomping at the bit to develop, but given that it sounds to be a smaller, cheaper Mammoth Mk II, it seems unlikely it'll supplant the Mammoth Mk III in Ground Forces use. As for a Mammoth Mk IV replacement? That's an interesting question, and really depends on how many major changes are made before GDI decides it's a proper new tank iteration. I wouldn't be surprised if a Mammoth Mk IV shows up in the next 5-10 years with another major boost to firepower as with the previous generations of Mammoth tanks. After all, who knows what the mad scientists in the Steel Talons will reveal to the world next in heavy firepower?
Posted on: 3 Jan 2060
Comments (58)
HeavyMetal3045
Before I get started, I did look up what kind of easily available information was around on the Mammoth Mk III development. Turns out, not a lot. Mostly press releases. So I'm going from the angle that you don't quite realize what's involved in military vehicle development, particularly with the Mammoth Mk III.
GDI military development can be broken up into two general categories and four phases. First category is Development, and consists of the design phase and the prototype/testing phase. Design figures out what's needed and comes up with the design. A small number of prototypes are then built and tested on some Proving Grounds. At this point, the entire project could stop if the testing results are bad enough and it's doubtful changes to solve them. Otherwise, we might have a series of changes and prototypes to work out the issues. The second category is Deployment, and consists of LRIP and Full Scale Production phases. LRIP stands for Low Rate Initial Production. With this, GDI has a factory or two built and a few hundred vehicles built with them in order to both test the building process to work kinks out, and to get enough vehicles to kit out a unit or two for end user testing. If the testing works out well enough, additional factories are built in order to handle the production needs of the military and full scale production starts. If it doesn't, well, the final phase doesn't happen.
At the time I was in service, Development was one funding request, LRIP was a second, and Production was a third. Buddies still in service indicate that LRIP and Production have merged into a single Deployment program, but it's apparently worked out since everyone involved has fairly recent combat experience to draw on when working on designs before anything gets to potential end users. Also, a lot of the design work goes on without Treasury funding, so the Development program is more final design work and prototype testing. Cheaper Treasury request, if nothing else. I wonder if that was the case back with the Mk III. Note - "Block 0" doesn't really exist as an official designation. The LRIP version is simply "LRIP" on the end and Block 1 is the production version regardless of how few changes are made from LRIP to Production (at the time and to now). So "Mammoth Mk III (LRIP)" would be more accurate.
As I understand it, a Steel Talons unit was the first unit to get them, and I'm sure that was an… interesting experience for all involved. What my unit got was probably a YHBT-5-1. The lack of a block designation plays merry hell with designating prototype variants. The main difference between the -1 and the original (officially, I don't think they differentiated between the versions; everything LRIP was HBT-5) was tweaks and improvements to the power pack, and some tweaks to suspension. Given that LRIP and Production were different Treasury programs, a lot of work was done on the LRIP program funding or by the Steel Talons before the Production program was funded. Why the delay? Above my pay grade. Given the budget cuts to the military in that time frame, could simply be that was when they freed up funding to continue the roll-out, or they were giving the Steel Talons time to suss out the issues so Production would go faster.
In any case, in mid 2041 we got 4-5 new Mammoth Mk IIIs. I believe this version was largely based on further Steel Talons modifications plus all new power pack and suspension, and it was designated XHBT-5A, so was likely to become the production model. The rear track units shifting rear was definitely from the Steel Talons's YHBT-5-2 version to the best of my knowledge. They were a dream to use in comparison to the LRIP versions we initially had. Not sure I want to know what the original version the Talons' got was like. By the end of the year, all of our LRIP HBT-5s were gone and we had a full supply of HBT-5A. Any LRIP Mk IIIs would've been relegated to training units, overhauled into Block 1 configurations, or simply put into reserve storage. 2043 was when the last Mammoth Mk II unit transitioned to the Mk III Block 1.
My biggest regret was that I never got to test or crew an (X)HBT-5B. Railguns on a Mammoth Mk II were amazing, and I wish I could've gotten the chance to put them to use in a Mk III. Not a big enough regret to sign up again though. Got more important things to take care of these days.
Electricty flashed across the room, as the Messiah stared at the giant ball, the gathered knowledge of an entire race. A gleefull smile donning his face, as he spoke out, his voice ringing all over the room. "Behold just a fragment of the what the Tacius can accomplish when used by someone worthy!"
The thunder struck out again, dramatic tension as the Nod soldiers bowed even further down, religious vigour on every one of their faces. The threshold tower, the ancient power of the Tacius, the mysterious capability of Kane all delivered through the medium of the digital child of God LEGION.
"With all of this, i can manipulate reality itself!" Kane twirled around, inspecting the followers of Nod beneath him. "Nothing on this planet poses even a challenge to me" Yet, one Nod follower looked cautiously, curiosity burning in his eyes, as he spoke up. "S-sir...Why are you just using this power..to mess up their food production"
The power to become a God, to ascend, leave behind the mortal coil, used to mess up a minor project of GDI. Kane mearly chuckled . "To annoy GDI, do you know how annoying they have been to me these past 100 years, my god, i'm having my petty revenge when i can have it now. Those assholes are getting what they deserve now. I'm gonna use my god-power to exclusively mess with them in the most minor of ways, let them see how funny it is when it happens to them!"
Truly, the machinations of Kane knew no limits, as expected of the Messiah
The Overseer was obviously impatient and it had no qualms about letting its inferior know this. The negative energy coming off it made the Observer pause for a few moments considering their words.
"Observer", the Overseer growled. "You are late, Overmind demands an update on Earth."
"I came as soon as I got word of your summoning." they replied cordially to no avail.
The Overseer circled around the lesser Scrin, evidently not really paying attention. "Overmind would have you neutralized for the delay. Be glad you report to me and I to it. Our great leader has been....irate...ever since the Hub Council vetoed the Invasion of Earth. The end of the cycle is too close. They do not want to risk drawing the attention of the Catalyst."
"A wise decision."
Overseer scoffed at the notion, but did not elaborate. Only Overmind was allowed to show opposition to the Council's decision. A lesser Scrin would be faced with incarceration or worse, neutralization. "Now, make your report."
"Yes Overseer." They began, transmitting the analyzed data it had collected over the last cycles to its superior. "The humans appear to have largely recovered from the damage inflicted by the extraction operation and have begun to reclaim the surface from the Ichor fields despite the accelerated replication speed. To note is the deployment of a primitive inhibitor network in orbit, significantly reducing the speed."
"What's the state of the subsurface spread?" Overseer interrupted its subordinate.
"At current timescales barring an outside intervention, projections show Earth will be inhabitable in a few hundred cycles at latest. The subsurface veins will sooner or later reach the mantle causing eruptions of molten Tiberium to occur between the tectonic plates."
"Overlord won't like this." The Overseer responded, a tint of fear mixing into its voice.
"However, the humans have begun to industrialize their orbit and build primitive settlements on Earth's moon. Projections say it is likely they will survive their planet reaching Ichor spread stage 4."
"This is good news. Overlord will have their revenge after all."
The Observer nodded before adding. "There is no source of Achlys in their immediate vicinity. They will not reach the technological threshold necessary to be harvested."
"Our leader will be pleased by this." The Overseer paused, briefly looking at the datastreams provided by the Observer, its attention drawn to the recordings of a certain humanoid. "Any intel on Kane and the Matrix."
"None, my Overseer. Kane evades my data gathering methods."
Suddenly the Observer could feel the harsh digits of its superior on their form. "You displease me Observer. What is your defense for this failure?"
Observers' thoughts raced. "I am limited to passive data collection, Overseer. I sent in a request for on site infiltration units cycles ago but never got a reply."
The Overseer paused, examining the lower Scrin before letting go. "Send the request again. I will contact the Formers about preparing human infiltration units and Overlord and Hub about their deployment, but chances are the order will be withheld until the harvest has passed."
"I am most grateful for your understanding."
"Your efforts have been noted, Observer."
"But there is something else. I don't know how long our outer-system presence can remain undiscovered with the humans' expansion into the wider solar system."
"A problem I will bring up in my meeting with Overlord and Hub. You are dismissed."
