HT-33 Venator

The HT-33 Venator is a six legged tank-type walker developed originally by the Icarusian Empire as a all terrain tank destroyer against UEF armored forces. However, by the time it finished development, the Empire had been reformed as a Kingdom and entered service with them instead. It saw heavy use against the Sentinels as a result alongside Federation forces and ironically, never saw action against the UEF.

Its powerful 140mm hypervelocity cannon earned it a reputation worthy of its name and was capable of punching through Sentinel tank armor with one shot at ranges beyond 6,000 meters unlike many other armored vehicles of its time.

It remained in limited service with many in storage long after the war as a result of its capable cannon matching the performance of new plasma weaponry.

## Design

### Armament

The HT-33 Venator is equipped with a AT-X1 140mm hypervelocity cannon using reversed engineered technology from Sentinel Hunters (small anti-personnel sniper robots), as a result its cannon is akin to a railgun and its rounds being caseless. This resulted in the cannon being relatively compact for its caliber as recoil was almost completely eliminated, subsequently the turret was fairly small as well. However, as a result of its unique cannon, it was incapable of firing any other shells but solid armor piercing 'dart' projectiles. Shells fired by this cannon thus had a velocity of 4000 m/s. This meant the cannon was the only cannon that could consistently and reliably penetrate the armor of Sentinel Tanks from any angle or side, outperforming even new plasma weaponry

The cannon relied on a 'arm' autoloader that pulled shells from a ammo rack located directly below the turret, extra rounds were directed towards the arm using a conveyor.

The vehicle was originally designed without any means to defend itself from enemy infantry forces as its role was intended to hit targets from afar. However, during the Pavola Rebellion post war, some vehicles were ambushed at point blank range and crews were forced to use the vehicle's legs to crush hostile personnel as a means to defend itself. This was questioned as whether it was humane and crews later had to clean the legs of human remains which could be described as 'unpleasant'. After these experiences, a single remote controlled .50 caliber machine gun was mounted to the left side of the turret during its upgrade program that resulted in the HT-33A2.

#### Fire Control System

The cannon is supported by a advanced FCS known as the MF94 'Lucerna' which gave the cannon unrivalled accurancy at any range and any environmental conditions. The FCS was exclusive to the HT-33, being designed specifically for the cannon's hypervelocities and projectiles.

### Protection

The HT-33 Venator has a relatively lightly protected hull, designed only to protect it from shrapnel and small arms fire. However, in contrast, the turret is heavily armored. This was of a result of the vehicle being planned to be used hulled down from long ranges, only exposing the turret to fire. As a result, its turret was designed to sustain as much as fire as possible from all UEF weaponry. This also had the unintended effect of it being strong enough to deflect and absorb high power plasma beams from Sentinel Tanks. Concentrated fire however is still able disable the turret.