Behemoth

Story

Stuck on the ass end of nowhere the 3rd vehicle of 1st regiment of 3rd Strategic fortress corp (of the “Monster“ Forces) designation Biggar was tasked with guarding backwater planet M15893. They were fortunately in the prime dimension where the seat of the Grand Alliance whole dimensional empire was located. Unfortunately they were in 1 of 2 less important galaxies unlike the Milky Way galaxy or the nearest neighbouring galaxy. On top of that they really were on the ass end of nowhere on the furthest edge that the Grand alliance had managed to colonise. This massive mobile fortress was designed to either destroy the enemy alone or if fortune happened to be good with “crunchies” (tanks, artillery and mechs) and “squishies” (Infantry, lightly armoured vehicles, and power suits). At this moment the only other fortress Moscow was on the other side of the planet as well as the majority of the crunchies and squishies.

The Inferis were coming down hard on both the Grand forces and prime dimension incursion was occurring on a more regular basis which meant that last line of defence planning had to be brought online. Which meant Biggar stuck on a backwater planet waiting for the worst to happen. It was assumed that planet M15893 would be hit first by alien forces running away from Inferis forces then eventually by Inferis forces after. So Col. McQueen could only tell his crew to hunker down and wait for the inevitable…

The “bugs” hit the planet after about 2 weeks of waiting. The sheer number of aliens overwhelmed the orbital defences so it was up to the Monsters and anybody still able to fight to handle them. Biggar with its suborbital ranged induction beam cannon was able to tag a few landers before the bulk of the forces came barrelling down on top of the planet. The planet population was close to several hundred million most of them were now in mountain bases or if they were important enough evacuated to a more secure system. So with this in mind Biggar was able to bring its full arsenal of weapons including WMD to bear against the enemy. Sitting still for a moment Biggar opened its IBCM silo and fired a massive missile into the air. Biggar then charged forward into the enemy formation that conveniently decided to assemble in one area instead of spreading out over the planet. The IBCM launched by Biggar was not a nuke but a massive anti-army round. This missile was an almost solid metal projectile with an inner thermite/ plasma core. When the optimum target point was reached the missile would ignite its core and a massive sea of molten metal would descend upon the targeted army. The combination of kinetic energy and super hot molten metal was enough to wipe out most armies and the bugs were no exception. They had the numbers but technologically there bio-tech was much lower then the Inferis forces. Time for some deep fried critters Col. McQueen humorously thought. The impact of the missile was in another 5 mintues so for the time being Biggar swivelled its massive triple 18” cannons and fired. Gouts of flame fired out of the cannons as each 18” shell flew to their designated target and then exploded. Huge chunks of the enemy opposing forces were rendered into nothing more then a spray of green blood and chitonus carparcaces, whole battalions, and even regiments worth of troops were erased as the firing continued. The whole compliment of anti-personel and anti-mech turrets were all fixed on targets and firing, the barrels of the many guns were already starting to turn red with use. Enemy bugs were trying desperately to fight back but the pressure of violence emitting from Biggar was too much to bear and the bugs started in a hasty retreat. Then the heavens opened up and a rain of horrible molten metal descended on the rear most area of the bug army. Caught between a flood of liquid death and a monster of angry flames the bug army was eliminated. Col McQueen breathed a sigh of relief, they were always at a danger of being over run especially with no crunchie or squishie support but the problem had resolved itself. Well time to sit back and relax while internal factories made more ammo or other parts thought Col. McQueen. If they had any luck they might be able to link up with Moscow and consolidate what they got…

It had been 2 months after the quick victory against the bugs; in the weeks that followed the Inferis had bombarded them. They had in that time gotten support from a Sturmkampfer, well more correctly one of its faust. Tha faust had the combat ability of a complete Sturmtiger but against the Inferis that just took the edge of the inevitable. Falling back on the last fortress not beaten into a pulp the human forces of M15893 had consolidated. There was: Biggar, Moscow (another Behemoth class though partially damaged and unable to make full repairs), a division of Ronin power suit troops, 5 Battalions of Gaia force of various types, 2 Wings of Ares forces gunships and ground attack mecha, a mixed battalion of conventional mecha, a company of super heavy tanks, and a entire battalion of Checkmate forces automated scouts and attack drones. Not too bad if they were fighting anyone else but they were fighting the Inferis. They had been whittled down and now they were making their last stand.

The Inferis started their assault with a quick orbital bombardment followed by a ground bombardment from heavy biomechanical war beast. Anything-lighter then a medium mech in shielding or anyone caught outside of a class 4 bunkers was annihilated. Col. McQueen didn’t even bother to take a head count on anyone left it was his baby Biggar and his crew and that was pretty much it. He knew he could not count on Moscow considering the size of the front they had to cover. The workload was lighter due to the two Behemoth class being there but they still had to kill an army of blood crazed, super powered bio-enhanced troops. The massive plasma cannon was levelled and fired on the approaching army; the secondary plasma destroyer turrets as well as missile bombardment turret were speaking as well. The destructive power of all the guns being fired forward was enough to check the advance for a moment, then the Inferis returned fire. An endless stream of Hellfire burned furiously against the thickly armoured side of Biggar as turrets swivelled and try to fire back. Most light turrets were already destroyed and only thicker armoured heavier turrets were surviving. The many dual 165 mm cannons were firing canister rounds in the hope of sweeping the Inferis away but the heaviness of the enemy’s defences were more then a match for so “light” an ammunition choice. It was a chaos of fire, plasma, bullets, missiles, and anything else that could be fired outside the armoured screens of Biggar, their possibility of survival were slowly disappearing as the crunchies and squishies holding the line were getting slaughtered. What seemed like days but were actually hours the final bio-plasma blast entered the internals of Biggar and silenced it forever…

There was nothing left form the remaining forces to do but retreat. Both Behemoth were gone and only a scattering of soldiers and mechs remained. Hopefully the other Grand held planets were doing better for now all one could do was survive and fight…

“Big enough for ya?”

-3rd strategic fortress corps motto

Behemoth class Mobile Planetary fortress

Speed: 60 km/h

Length: 300 meters

Height: 50 meter

Crew: 200 min requirements, 1000 max passenger load

Armour: Duratanium (50 cm thick), Ablative armour add on plating, Extra hard top coat

Shield: magnetic energy shield, Aegis Plasma shield

Reactor: 1 x capital ship grade ant-matter reactor, 4 x compact cold fusion reactors

Weapons fixed: 4 x triple 18” cannon turrets, 10 x 165 mm dual cannon turrets, 1 x suborbital range plasma cannon, 1 x Strategic bombardment missile turret, 1 x Hex barrel plasma destroyer, 1 x main ICBM silo, 1 x VLMS (Vertical Launch Missile System), 8 x secondary ICBM silos

Weapon turrets: Covered later x many

Misc systems:

Land Doppler radar system, strategic command center, Enchanced fire control system, onboard manufacturing facilities, vehicle bay, med bay

The smallest and easiest to manufacture mobile fortress Behemoth class were very prolific in the inner systems of the Grand Alliance. They served the purpose to defend planets when the space defence options had failed. Paired either with other mobile fortresses or “crunchies” and “squishes” these fortresses were the bastions that human forces could fall back on.

Equipped with everything a division would need to maintain a fighting force (medical bays, manufacturing facilities which could make a whole heavy mech if need be, and munition plants) these vehicles served as excellent command centers. Their primary purpose however was to be an impenetrable fortress that could wipe enemies out in the skies or ground.

Built around large power reactors these vehicles could power an entire city the size of New York by themselves. These reactors were needed for the energy hungry shielding systems as well as the primary plasma cannon with suborbital range. Backing this cannon up was a rapid firing plasma Destroyer (a whole bunch of large plasma cannons) and a strategic missile launcher. On the less exotic side there were 18” cannon typically found on the largest navy ships and dual 165 mm cannon turrets. Though not energy based these massive guns firepower was undeniable. In terms of missiles this vehicle had the ICBM capacity of most nations ICBM arsenals. The main launcher could fire a titanic size ICBM that could wipe out several hundred kilometres of land or several other specialized munitions. These included low orbital anti-ship missiles, anti-army rounds (molten metal, plasma, or cluster bombs) and even encased mechas. These rounds could be made in a week time inside the manufacturing bays and smaller nukes took 3 days.

Despite all these strengths the Behemoth was still a very big target and was not particularly manuverable. A smart enemy could pin down and destroy this fortress by swarms tactics or using an even bigger fortress.