Teletanks

*We tried this in Finland, didn't work as well as you'd think.*

- Visiting Soviet scientist on the teletank program.
### Telegraphing

The teletank program has it's original roots in the Winter War two decades before World War II. The Soviets, attempting to prove their superiority over their enemies, created the tanks to supplement their tanks during the war against Finland. The concept might have shown some promise, but the technology behind it was crude compared to later Soviet drone designs. A single teletank was guided by a control tank roughly 1,000 meters to the rear, the teletank armed with simple weapons like machine guns, flamethrowers, and even a single high explosive bomb to act as a suicide drone.

Though a novel concept, the Soviets could not fully utilize the concept. The 1:1 ratio was simply too small to really impact the war in a meaningful way, and the concept was abandoned for such concepts as early cybernetics or even psychic abilities. The project was dismantled as Cherdenko took power over the Union's experimental projects, the remaining examples left in the Union's storage facilities to serve as a scientific curiosity or to serve as the inspiration for a new weapon. Indirectly, their first battles were what inspired the creation of the earliest drones in the Soviet arsenal. The tanks were left to rust to nothing.

Then rose the Federation.

### Transcontinental

The Federation's socialist leanings made it a prime ally for the Soviets to latch onto in South America. Uruguay became the vital link between the Soviet Union and the Federation (even if a lot of the resources that would have been more effectively utilized in the Federation were sent to MIR), including what essentially became the dumping of older technologies on cyberbolivarianism. Most were essentially tossed to MIR as soon as they hit the beaches, but one caught the Federation's eye; three pairs of the teletanks and control tanks.

The concept matched perfectly for the Federation's beliefs, and their military situation. Manufacturing capabilities were limited for actual military vehicles, but the number of men capable of operating a tank was severely limited. What did exist was a number of men who could operate a radio control. Improving on the Soviet concept with contemporary technologies, the Federation was able to essentially create entire armored battalions in weeks by basically strapping armor and weapons to formerly civilian vehicles. Armed with everything from machine guns to autoloading main cannons, the only drawback was that the Federation was unable to control them from a distant command center like Allied drone systems, or have them operate independently like Soviet or Imperial systems. Unwilling to simply hardwire a living human being into the vehicles like the Syndicate, the Federation high command decided that the only real method to ensure the teletanks would be useful was to put their controllers in a small van and put them nearby on the field. The van itself is only protected by bulletproof plating inside, but it's expected that the vans will use their "escorts" for protection.

### Tell Me Something New

As far as the concept goes, the Soviets were only inspired by Tesla, so no one is really shocked by the fact that the Federation is using remote-controlled "tanks". In fact, the technology is so shockingly low-tech that that the Allies and Technate are wondering if there isn't something else behind the teletanks. It seems so simple, the Federation's enemies feel that there is possibly more to them than just being a simple remote-controlled tank.

Whatever their enemies may think, the Federation knows that the teletanks are an effective way to reinforce their armored forces in war. If their enemies want to believe there is something else to them, all the better. It will make their use on the field more frightening when encountered.

 **Detailed Information** | •