Borgholio wrote:Taking bets on if Mr Weyland tries to get ahold of Cylon tech and gets skinned as a result...
He doesn't strike me as the type who would (literally) risk his own skin like that. And TBH, what have the Cylons got that he'd be interested in? Apart from FTL and Tylium, the Colonials/Cylons are distinctly technically inferior to the Terrans.
Of course, that doesn't mean that the Cylons won't catch him at some point. Just that it'll have to happen some other way.
I wonder what is in that research centre? Something extremely embarassing to WY, I hope.
"Only a fool expects rational behaviour from their fellow humans. Why do you expect it from a machine that humans have designed?"
Centurion M-00005/GRY-237427 sat in the sensor technicians seat of the Command Land-Ram. Unlike their modern brethren, the old-style Centurions—or Guardians, as they preferred—still used the massive tracked vehicles as all-purpose armored personnel carriers and assault units, just like the Colonial military had before its destruction. In fact, the Cylon Land-Ram was functionally identical to the old Colonial models. The behemoths were slab-sided, little more than a box set atop a set of tracks, with a Raider-scale twin kinetic-energy cannon in a turret on the upper surface. They were fairly slow, but heavily armored. Each was crewed by four Centurions—a driver, sensor operator, gunner, and commander, but the gunner was stationed above in the open turret.
The troop bay to the rear was accessed through a folding ramp and held up to twenty additional Centurions, plus their heavy weapons. And every Cylon assault shuttle that had attempted to land on Beowulf had carried one.
Three hundred Land-Rams (and the seventy-two hundred Centurions carried aboard) had split from the infantry force and were now flanking the Thirteenth Tribe—all coordinated by the Commander aboard this very Land-Ram.
“Commander,” intoned GRY-237427 in his monotone voice. “We have detected vehicular emissions ahead—unknown configurations.”
“Range?” asked the gold-plated Commander from his central chair behind the driver and GRY-237427.
“Seven kilometers—I am detecting sixty-four previously unknown vehicles. Forty-six of one class and eighteen smaller vehicles.”
“Confirmed GRY-237427,” the Commander spoke.
“I prefer Gary,” the Centurion said.
There was silence for a moment, and then the Commander directed his gaze at the Centurion. “You are a Centurion—you have a designation, not a name.”
“The Imperious Leader has a name—I am a sentient being. Should I not have a name if I desire one?”
“The Imperious Leader has earned her name—you have not. Threat evaluation?”
“Enemy vehicles are smaller than our own,” Gary reported. “Impossible to evaluate threat level—weaponry unknown. Armor unknown. Maximum speed and mobility unknown. Threat level unknown.”
“They are outnumbered five-to-one by our Land-Rams—they are smaller. We will move into the attack.”
Gary paused and then he turned to face the Commander. “Perhaps we should send out a small force to meet them—to gather information on their capabilities.”
“Perhaps I should report you, GRY-237427 to Command for being dysfunctional and in need of core reprogramming.”
“By your command,” Gary answered as he turned back to his console.
“Yes. By my command. Advance and engage the Thirteenth Tribe,” the Commander ordered.
“Commander. We have been detected by the humans—their vehicles are taking cover beneath the summit of the far ridge,” Gary reported.
“Their armor must be weak if they fear our weapons at this range—gunners engage when we enter optimal range.”
“Commander,” Gary said again, “I am detecting fire-control emissions—we are being lased for exact range-finding.”
“At this range? Are they equipped with missiles?”
“Negative, Commander; however, sensors now show the larger vehicles carry a large kinetic energy cannon.”
“Large? How large?”
“Very large, Commander,” said Gary.
“Impossible,” the gold-plated Centurion said. But Gary did not answer.
From the front windows of the Land-Ram, forty-two flashes of light appeared on the ridge nearly six kilometers away—and just a handful of seconds later, forty-one Land-Rams exploded.
“Commander,” Gary reported. “Confirm long-range heavy kinetic energy cannons—suggest immediate withdrawal to cover.”
“Negative—our orders are explicit. We must engage the Thirteenth and evaluate their military strength. Close to range and open fire.”
And a second salvo fired and two score more Land-Rams died.
“Commander,” Gary said as he turned around. “We will be in range in two minutes—they apparently can fire every sixteen seconds. If we continue this charge, we will be destroyed twenty-four seconds before we can return fire. I would suggest we fire smoke and deploy the Centurion infantry, seeking cover to flank the humans.”
“We have our orders.”
“This sucks,” Gary said, as the Land-Rams to either side exploded. “I will request a transfer from your command in our next life, Commander.”
Last edited by masterarminas on 2013-02-21 09:34pm, edited 2 times in total.
MondoMage wrote:Man, if Gary doesn't survive this somehow I'm gonna be bummer. Sure, he's a genocidal mechanical monstrosity, but the dude's got soul!
I was wondering for a second, if he was one of those synth things that the Terrans unleashed on the cylons, and happened to get downloaded into a toaster.
Nah, if that was possible I don't think it would have happened in time for said Synthetic to be included in with the assault troops.
But Gary's last words have me wondering. The Guardians have their own Resurrection, yes? So we may be seeing him again. Hopefully, he'll get his transfer.
And apparently the Colonies never developed tanks, or the Cylons would have known they were in trouble.
Actually the Colonies did....the same model that the Guardians now use. As far as actually non-troop carrying battle tanks, I would presume they did and the Guardians just underestimated the range of the guns.
Borgholio wrote:Actually the Colonies did....the same model that the Guardians now use. As far as actually non-troop carrying battle tanks, I would presume they did and the Guardians just underestimated the range of the guns.
The design of the Landram doesn't speak to the Colonies having much experience with land warfare. Far too conspicuous and not optimised for any particular role. And the command centurion seems to be unfamiliar with the idea of mounting high-calibre weapons on a vehicle, rather than just autocannon.
Hmmm. If they have no conception of tanks, then they probably won't anticipate self-propelled artillery either.
"Only a fool expects rational behaviour from their fellow humans. Why do you expect it from a machine that humans have designed?"
Zwinmar wrote:Everyone knows that regular arty can pack a heavier punch than self propelled
Erm. Why? Guns of the same calibre are not going to have significantly different performance, simply because one is towed and the other is self-propelled.
Granted, static artillery can be much larger and heavier than either towed or self-propelled, but on the other hand, it's also immobile, which is a rather large flaw in modern warfare.
Facing a highly mobile attack force like the Cylons, I would assume that the defenders are going to need to be equally as mobile. Hence, self-propelled would be preferred.
"Only a fool expects rational behaviour from their fellow humans. Why do you expect it from a machine that humans have designed?"
Borgholio wrote:Actually the Colonies did....the same model that the Guardians now use. As far as actually non-troop carrying battle tanks, I would presume they did and the Guardians just underestimated the range of the guns.
The Land-Rams seem more akin to an APC than any sort of battle tank. I'm not sure the Colonies ever developed anything like that or else the Cylons would have been a lot more aware of the threat they were facing. And poor Gary wouldn't be in a thousand tiny smoking pieces.
Borgholio wrote:Actually the Colonies did....the same model that the Guardians now use. As far as actually non-troop carrying battle tanks, I would presume they did and the Guardians just underestimated the range of the guns.
The Land-Rams seem more akin to an APC than any sort of battle tank. I'm not sure the Colonies ever developed anything like that or else the Cylons would have been a lot more aware of the threat they were facing. And poor Gary wouldn't be in a thousand tiny smoking pieces.
Alas, poor Gary, we barely knew him.
Im not sure it actually means anything, but several chapters back when the scorpia picked up sam anders and the rest of the merry men, he did make mention that they had picked up some anti tank missles from a museum. So at some point, the colonies would have had tanks of some kind.
Borgholio wrote:Actually the Colonies did....the same model that the Guardians now use. As far as actually non-troop carrying battle tanks, I would presume they did and the Guardians just underestimated the range of the guns.
The Land-Rams seem more akin to an APC than any sort of battle tank. I'm not sure the Colonies ever developed anything like that or else the Cylons would have been a lot more aware of the threat they were facing. And poor Gary wouldn't be in a thousand tiny smoking pieces.
Alas, poor Gary, we barely knew him.
Im not sure it actually means anything, but several chapters back when the scorpia picked up sam anders and the rest of the merry men, he did make mention that they had picked up some anti tank missles from a museum. So at some point, the colonies would have had tanks of some kind.
Declan
Well, it does depend exactly how they define "Tank". For all we know, it's a synonym for "Landram". But if the Colonials ever did have tanks as we understand the term, then the Cylon commander's reaction is inexplicable. Of course, he could just be suffering from the same delusions of superiority as Zoe.
"Only a fool expects rational behaviour from their fellow humans. Why do you expect it from a machine that humans have designed?"
Well, it does depend exactly how they define "Tank". For all we know, it's a synonym for "Landram". But if the Colonials ever did have tanks as we understand the term, then the Cylon commander's reaction is inexplicable. Of course, he could just be suffering from the same delusions of superiority as Zoe.
Until we get word from on high, I figure actual armor is something that was pre colonial unification. Something the weaker power or the stingier power would use. Ten million dollar tank, 10K dollar missile, or what sam was actually using was their version of an RPG 7. So its possible that the average toaster might not have the historical data on call, but zoe might.
declan wrote:Until we get word from on high, I figure actual armor is something that was pre colonial unification. Something the weaker power or the stingier power would use. Ten million dollar tank, 10K dollar missile, or what sam was actually using was their version of an RPG 7.
Considering the preponderance of LandRams, I don't think a functional tank is something that the Colonies or Cylons would simply abandon. It's more likely that the Colonials never saw the need for a dedicated mobile armor platform. Especially if the development of anti-armor missiles came before such an evolution.
And I re-read the section where Anders was picked up - there is no specific mention on an "anti-tank" weapon that I could find. Just a generic description of what they were using that sounded an awful lot like a bazooka of some sort. So it's entirely likely that the Colonials completely avoided the line of research that would lead to a functional tank, and instead relied on their Land-Ram APCs. And the Cylons copied them. Against a line of competently-crewed Main Battle Tanks, their Land-Ran assault was doomed to failure. Now, had their ground infantry been involved, that would have been a whole 'nother story.
