Wasteland Superheavy Tank

*"I don't see anyone else coming up with better ideas."*

-Rockey Gibson, head engineer of the Wasteland tank, replying to the criticisms received on showcase.
## Tactical Analysis

* **Roving wasteland:** Capable of surviving anything thrown at the front of it, the Wasteland is the Contingent's answer to the continuing quest to build a better tank. Armed with six metalstorm heavy machine guns, two hull-mounted in the front and a pair on a ball turret on each side, to defend against infantry, battlesuits, and vehicles, and a frontal-mounted giant mortar that demolishes buildings and slows swathes of tanks and infantry that tries to advance, the Wasteland is capable of leveling entire bases on its own.

* **An irresistible pull:** The Wasteland also possesses the Contingent's most powerful vehicle-borne gravametric field generator; creating a gravity well on activation that drags units towards it, redirect attacks to nearby allies into itself, crush tanks that get too close, and the less said about what happens to infantry the better. However, the Wasteland can’t move or directly attack while the generator is active and any damage they take is increased (since the rounds are coming towards them at increased speed), not an issue if it hits the front, but the rear...

* **It's like you built it with sheet metal:** The Wasteland is essentially little better armored than a main battle tank's front armor at the sides and rear. Quick flanking or sustained fire on the rear can easily destroy the tank, especially since none of its weapons can aim at its rear, with aircraft having the additional bonus of being untargetable.

* **Bob's your uncle:** The sheer morale presence of a Wasteland means that the elite crews of the tanks give a massive morale boost to everyone nearby. These are the Contingent's best, and their brothers and sisters on the field know it.

## Background

*"I'm a one-tank apocalypse."*

-Mako Rutledge, famed Wasteland tank commander.
Atmospheric Command has come to realize that when the final phases of their plans are activated, much of the world will come after them with everything they have. Again their shores will become a battlefield, their coasts a naval graveyard. This would mean that the Contingent would face one of the most dangerous weapons of war; the superheavy vehicle.

Yet despite their propaganda value, the Contingent is smart enough to know that a superheavy system is, if anything, a massive target for the enemy to practice on with all their systems. Atmospheric Command wanted nothing to do with a superheavy tank, knowing that the resources spent on a similar, simpler system would be more cost-effective. Simple practicality would have normally prevented the construction of such a unit for the Contingent, but as the cliche goes, "When in Rome". The sheer number of superheavy systems all other factions have means that to go without leaves a force vulnerable.

Still, the Contingent lacked the same kind of engineers that made the Mammoth or Assault Striker possible. Desperate to play catch up, the engineers assigned to the project went for the most direct route possible by taking the blueprints of the Bob Semple, the only “tank” made in Oceania, which they use as the template: They made a giant metal box, stuck a smaller metal box atop the box to hold a 600mm mortar. Six metalstorm heavy machine guns were mounted to aid against enemy infantry and vehicles, and the entire creation was so heavily armoured at the front, and sides to a lesser extent, that two massive tractor engines were needed to power it and had to be mounted at the front. The end result, after nine trial and error tests, was a tank that was slightly larger than an Apocalypse, and about six times larger than the original Semple. With a mortar that’s as wide as the tank and takes up 80% of its top houses within a giant box that holds the commander, gunner, loader, and radioman, all of whom have to stand. Six heavy machine guns, two hull-mounted in the front with the gunners to the driver's right, with both gunners having to lie down on top of the engine with only a layer of heat-resistant plastic separating them to fire (leading to the gunners putting a spare mattress below them despite making their station even more cramp for comfort) and two on each side as a ball turret which can't aim at the rear. With armour that’s two meters thick at the front but the sides and rear may as well be made of corrugated sheet metal for how much it protects, and holding the only entrance/exit to the tank.

Compared to other superheavies, the Wasteland seems to be a hunk of junk barely worth the title. Since fast units can easily flank its vulnerable rear. There is also it’s remarkable vulnerability to enemy aircraft, but since almost all superheavies lack anti-air weaponry this point is not truly worth mentioning. At that point, it makes one wonder why the Contingent bothered to create it at all.

But any doubts of the Wasteland vanishes once it’s mortar fires. Thanks to a combination of anti-gravity and an autoloader the mortar shells loads in an instant once a shell fires, letting it completely saturate an area with gravity-accelerated depleted uranium cannonballs that reduces any building into rubble, and its impact creating explosions that slows vehicle and infantry advance. Infantry, battlesuits, and vehicles that try to attack it head-on will see themself ripped to pieces by .600 rounds sprays the area in depleted uranium shrapnel. And any vehicle that thinks it can get close, or ground units who think it can flank them in the unprotected rear, would soon learn why it’s worthy of its name as it activates its singularity generator, which is essentially the Bushmasters generator on steroids, and transform into a massive and powerful gravity well, tanks who get too close are crushed by their own mass, infantry are simply crushed into paste, and enemy units within a large radius are slowed as they resist the gravity pulling at them, fortunately for the Contingent their forces are immune to its effect thanks to special equipment. And fortunately for the enemy, the Wasteland itself can’t move or attack while the generator is active and all round fired at or near them are faster as they pulled towards the Wasteland, increasing the damage the Wasteland takes, which is concerning if the enemy flanks the rear while the generator is active. And as a symbol of Oceania choosing to find a way to fight despite overwhelming odds and poor equipment, it’s no wonder why ace Wasteland crews are considered an inspiring presence to all Contingent forces. And there’s also the fact that no one actually knows about the Wasteland, or at least how deadly it is.

Atmospheric Command is trying to learn from what's happened over the past few decades, which means that the Wasteland is currently their only real "secret", and the few times its been revealed the enemy would scoff at it as a propaganda tool at best due to how ridiculous it looks, or be another Network crackpot raving. All finished models of the tanks are kept practically under lock and key, deep in the heart of the outback away from the rest of the world. The crews train to become experts at maintaining and using their new vehicles, informed of the full scope of the Contingent's plans. Where other superheavy crews are at best loyal sociopaths to their causes or unfeeling crews, the Wasteland crews could charitably be called the best of their countrymen. Made up of only veteran vehicle crews from the last war and trained to know every facet of their new tank, the Wasteland is the Contingent's only trump card. When the plan kicks into gear, the best hope for the Wastelands is that they'll buy enough time for all the civilians to be saved.