Terravore-Type Mining Technical

Terravore tanks are among the largest ground units utilized by the Imperial Legions. They are desinged as giant mechanical worms with highly efficient digging and drilling mechanisms to quickly move through even the hardest rocks, heavily reinforced and armored fortress armor walls and heavy structures such as gigantic skyscrapers with high speeds. They have a large array of uses and where they are employed correctly they are a tremendously valuable and effective asset.

These massive engines of war can only be deployed through specialized deployment tubes on board full size military carriers such as the Consolidator-class Corps Assault Carrier. When deployed they will burrow into the crust of a planet, often traveling several kilometers below the crust. This keeps them safe from orbital bombardment, air attack, large surface explosions or artificial earthquakes, which might otherwise destroy them.

   Terravores are utilized in major planetary battles and sieges as locating and destroying them underground is often nigh-impossible without using high-caliber orbital bombardment to crack the crust of a planet. Standard practice is to deploy large numbers of them during sieges and continually harass the enemy with waves of robotic infantry as they struggled to root out the Terravores which tunnel deep underground. These tunnels that they dug can also be used to conceal or protect other forces. Additionally entire enemy facilities can be undermined in higher layers, although this increases danger of detection through seismic vibrations, and the created areas can be beset with explosive devices, which in turn can bring entire skyskrapers, fortresses, orbital defense cannons to crumble into the ground, or at least loose structural stability so that they are vulnerable to attacks, or in the case of heavy cannons are no longer in their intended firing vectors to reach Imperial troops.

The Terravore Drills can also carry troops to bring them deep behind enemy lines, to enemy underground bunkers, to assault enemy facilities from below and more.

Sensitive Sensor-Scanners enable precise 3D mapping of surrounding materials and objects, enabling the optimizing of a route as the Drill can avoid harder layers in the ground which would otherwise slow it down. Enemy subterranean operations such as explosive traps embedded into the ground, bunkers, mines, and more can also be tracked early.

**Weapons**

Though they lack primary weapons, having only arrays of retractable chainguns positioned behind small hatches, the machine's body itself can function as a weapon. Its arsium-tipped drill could be used to burrow into fortifications or the side of large titan vehicles or land ships. The machine could also wrap around and constrict other large units and crush them to death. Thanks to its extremely thick armor and redundant sections the machine was extremely difficult to fully destroy with anything less than capital-ship grade weaponry.

**Supply Function**

While underground the Terravore can gather and process resources and use them to produce new assets via arrays of internal universal assemblers, and then expend the unneeded compounds and materials through the hatch on the rear. This can be used to produce munitions, robots, or even prefabricated components which can be assembled into vehicles. This function is especially useful on longer battles on a single planet to buff up friendly supply lines. A Terravore can spend days underground, mining raw resources (which it can detect with powerful sensor-scanners that pierce through rock, metal and earth for kilometers, in addition to using the results of orbital or surface-based scans) while producing ammunition, spare parts for weapons, entire weapons themselves, replacements for armor and vehicle parts, then surface again, preferrably to a location that is cleared of enemy air presence, unload its produced items, which can be picked up either by already awaiting Imperial or allied assets or await pickup, and then dig down into the ground again. This of course is primarily a support and supply function throughout it does not directly take part in combat.

**Crew**

The Terravore is crewed by large numbers of Mediocine battle engineers and Robots, led by a Commander. A majority of the internal spaces are too small for standard-size beings to properly access due to being crammed with power generators, universal assembly bays, and ore refineries, therefore smaller robots would take over engineering, mechanic and repair duties from humans. As the Terravore's systems can quickly break down if not properly maintained they are maintenance intensive, which is the cause of the large number of engineers on board.

**Stats**

Mobility: Spiked Wheels (128)

Top Speed at linear direction in ideal terrain on average: 100kph (surface), 50kph (soft soil), 30kph (soft rock), 20kph (hard rock)

Length: 250m Width: 15m Height: 15m

Mass: 10,000 Tons

Crew: 800 Engineers, 800 Robots

Armament: Arsium Tipped Drill, 128 Retractable Chaingun Emplacments

Hull Armor: 65cm Composite Alloy Armor Plates

Systems: Advanced Sensor-Scanners able to pierce Kilometers of thick rock, earth and metals, Advanced Communicator specialised to send untrackable signals through kilometer-thick layers of material, 64 Asset Deployment hatches