Aletheia's Hammer

## Tactical Analysis

* **Home edition:** Derived from smuggled Marauder Tanks (and Marauder Tank schematics), the Aletheia's Hammer is a homebrewed vehicle very distinct from the Marauder Tanks themselves. This fact, combined with the tank's unorthodox appearance (it looks like a giant metal box), has greatly contributed to making The Network a laughingstock for the saner people.

* **Yippie-kai-yay, motherf\*\*\*\*\*:** However, when the Network decides to get serious, the Aletheia's Hammer can unveil a powerful Big Bertha howitzer that can launch 16.5-inch shells that can decimate enemies from afar.

* **Nobody here but us boulders and buildings:** Since the Aletheia's Hammer is a large target after all, not to mention it is, indeed, a metal box on the outside, Aletheia's Hammer drivers do their best to camouflage their vehicles by placing up stands and tarps around it.

* **Gotta go fast:** Some Aletheia's Hammer operators try to tweak out the engines of their vehicles, enabling them to move faster.

## Background

"*When the conspiracy theorist group "The Network" gets cornered like a rat in front of a ferocious cat, they unveil their trump card: a metal box which they hide inside like cowards and fools, the Allies are keen to take away their metal boxes."*

-  A New York Times editorial dedicated to mocking the Network. Said editorial did not pass without comment within the Conduit.
The vehicles used in warfare just keep getting more bizarre each passing day, isn't it? Ever since Gen. Patton gave birth to the concept of armored warfare, almost every mechanized force that each factions utilize throughout the world have their own share of quirks. Today, the Allies are currently trying out their experimental vehicles that defy the laws of physics. The Soviets still stick to their two-barreled metallic montrosities capable of dealing major damage to a base with a single tank alone. An unconfirmed report coming from Titograd tells of a four-legged behemoth rumored to take extreme amounts of damage and fail to fall even from it. And if the rest of the world are to accept the Network's words as fact, there are even grainy footage of strange purple tanks in the process of absorbing Hammer tanks in a remote Siberian village.

Not so with the Network. As their Continental allies have took the the "toys for the big boys" first, vehicles that were already collecting dust in the Boneyard anyway, the Network have to make do with independent inventors with designs of dubious success. Many of these inventors have started taking apart existing tank designs to create an entirely new one, often a mockery of the original. Some cells have even resorted to strapping a few obsolete guns onto the sides of personal vehicles to act as their cavalry units. Others decided to forgo vehicles altogether, preferring to stock up on high-caliber firearms as much as possible. In spite of their actions to improve their combat vehicles, the fact remains that the Network is very much lacking in the heavy firepower department.

Specifically, the Conduit was in a dire need of a dedicated artillery vehicle. Their own truth seeker tanks are more commonly used in recon missions as their main cannons are near-useless, leading them to fire so-called 'camera shells' instead. And as much as the Killdozer is known to take a large amount of hits and can also deal an equally large amount of damage, their ponderously-long construction time, plodding mobility and their vulnerability against HEAT weapons mean that they cannot wholly depend on them alone. A lot of Prometheans have written up designs (with predictably disastrous results), but only one was accepted, probably because it's one of the more decent designs that can actually work in a battlefield.

The solution was simple (in paper); purchase a few Marauder Tanks from the local II Warehouse (or loot some wrecks from the GLA when in the Middle East), them together and replace its tank cannon with a WWI Big Bertha cannon in hopes of producing a big enough boom to shake the cabals to their knees. The problem, however, was translating the idea to practice. Due to one of the members' inability to distinguish the sounds of a tracking device from the whirring of an engine, the entire "tank" had almost everything inside stripped out save for the engine and the seats themselves. Even if the ensuing result ended up to be a source of hilarity for everyone, the vehicle was christened the **"Aletheia's Hammer"** after the Greek personification of the truth, and was quickly given its first mission: assist a Continental commander at destroying an Allied outpost in Topeka.

When the Hammer was first shown to the Network cells inside Topeka, it immediately became the laughingstock for all personnel stationed there, eventually leading to the derisive NYT article about it. The crew wasn't fazed, however, having camouflaged the outside to appear as a small warehouse to hide the contents of Pandora's Box; the aforementioned Big Bertha howitzer. After moving into position, the Hammer quickly made short work of most vehicles in the base (and dealt some considerable damage to buildings there) as the tunnel rats are on their way to demolish those that were already weakened. Upon reaching the Inner Circle, the Overlord has requisitioned the Hammer to the Conduit that today serves as their premier artillery.

Cells are reminded that these vehicles are currently only few in number, and must be taken carefully to ensure their longevity. Also, for all of their ferocity, they are literally only giant metal boxes.

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