Heavens-Fall

The ***Heavens-Fall*** is a variant of the Ajax Light Vehicle, utilised exclusively by the Warriors of Peace Legion.

## Design

With the insight of some of their most prominent techmarines at the time, the Warriors of Peace saw the Ajax as an opportunity to expand their vehicular arsenal in a new way. Choosing to heavily armour the basic Ajax it has even encased the driver and gunner in a command compartment to shield them, partially from enemy fire and partially from the shock wave of their main weapon firing. Mounted on the rear is an entire weapon assembly, including guidance servitor, autoloading system and various ammo racks to allow it to provide extensive, rapid-fire rounds on target, all these systems supply the Heavy Mortar Cannon.

While categorised as 'light artillery' the Heavy Mortar is anything but light, requiring the vehicle to deploy two hydraulic ram arms into the ground when firing. The recoil from the weapon system firing is so powerful that, if unsupported it might break the suspensor supports for the rear chassis. To support the hungry beast an internal storage and autoloader system holds 42 rounds, while the remaining spare ammunition is kept in 2 large storage bins attached to the back of the vehicle. The exception to this is a single round stored inside the crew cabin in a armoured compartment, this being the single round with an atomic warhead for use in times of dire need.

A small black cross on the right pauldron It is often used to denote amongst crews If they have ever had to use an atomic round, as it is seen as a failure to both their teachings and the part of the world they've destroyed.

While the armoured crew compartment does offer significant protection along with the heavy ceramite armour covering the vehicle the problem of being attacked by anti-vehicle munitions is still a great one. To this end the Heavens-Fall is equipped with two Electronic Counter-Measure launching pods coupled with a set of smoke-grenade launchers it serves to make the vehicle a very hard one to pin down.

Used as a light artillery platform the Heavens-Fall is used to support fast-moving or armoured forces with accurate and continuous indirect fire, able to mow down waves of infantry with withering salvoes of high explosive shells. By using it's speed advantage it can keep up with these forces or even support them with direct fire, never staying in one place for too long before moving. The combination of sheer firepower, and decent speed and amour has allowed the Heavens-Fall to prove itself multiple times over, truly bringing the sky down upon the enemies of mankind.

### Armament

The Heavy Mortar Cannon is a piece of siege artillery normally reserved for Imperial Army use as a towed system, wheeled into pre-prepared bunkers and set to fire for days at a time. As with most other applications of post-human thinking and ingenuity, the Warriors of Peace saw the Ajax as an opportunity to provide assaults and harassment actions with artillery support, without the need for the complex maintenance and resupply lines needed for their larger Whirlwind cousins. With a fully articulated mounting and integrated autoloader the mortar can not only lay down artillery fire up to 20km away, it can also engage with light-skinned vehicles and infantry directly out to 2.5km. The autoloader, filled with 42 rounds can be loaded with a variety of munitions, and supply the weapon with enough ammo to fire for 5 minutes straight before the system needs to be reloaded.

With an integrated control system that allows the gunner to take direct control or designate a target area, the mortar can reliably places rounds within 3m of their target, able to  be fired in patterns to cover more or specific areas.

Backing up the mortar is a single turret mounted on the top of the vehicle, in an articulated mount much the same as them. A storm bolter with it's own targeting system has a commanding view in a 360º arc around the vehicle. Used to suppress and eliminate lightly armoured infantry it can also be controlled remotely from the gunners position with a manual input in the event it is needed.

### Defence

Using ceramite plating the Warriors of Peace choose the concentrated protection of a stronger material over a compromise as seen in other designs. The heavy plates cover the vehicle, even encasing the driver and gunner in a crew compartment that keeps them free from small arms fire. The unfortunate downside to such effective armour is it's weight, and the effect that has on the vehicle itself. While Heavens-Fall is slower than it's counterpart variants it still manages to maintain an impressive speed, able to outrun most astartes vehicles despite the combined weight of weapon, ammunition and armour.

 Sporting  a set of two ECM launchers, the Heavens-Fall can protect itself from guided munitions such as missiles and targeting equipment by firing off reflective chaff and small flares out to confuse and distract any electronics aimed at their vehicle. This serves to blind and confuse the systems allowing the crew time to withdraw from an unfavourable battle.