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| SieSys and KDY announce latest products; Cutting-edge military hardware | |
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| Topic Started: Feb 22 2011, 02:26 AM (104 Views) | |
| The Authority of the Grand Moff | Feb 22 2011, 02:26 AM Post #1 |
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2nd Lieutenant
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The Moff's hands were trembling. That was why they were behind his back, grasping each other, trying to prevent their mutual manifestations of fear. His face may have projected confidence, his broad chest and shoulders might be boldly declaring their impregnability, but the Moff's hands were trembling. Not again... Sienar thought. Not like last time.... At their first product line announcement, Sienar Systems had been thoroughly embarassed by Kuat Drive Yards. His "Centurion" and "Optio" light attack vehicles--excellent reviews though they received--were no match for Kuat's excellent PX-10 or. Though it as possible, even quite likely that Sienar's products would end up selling more units than Kuat, SieSys still appeared inferior. Sienar has proven itself a capable arms manufacturer, it was said--but Kuat had once again asserted his preeminence with magnificent flair. Sienar had been roundly humiliated--and that was even before the Landships.... Ugh... the Landships... Sienar thought, his stomach churning at the very thought of the awesome harbingers of death, unlike anything ever seen before in warfare. True, they were outlandishly expensive, and there had been no indications that there would be any more produced other than the initial run of six Juggernaut-class monstrosities. In fact, it was quite likely that they would never even see the field of battle. Ah, but what a sight they would present! he sullenly acknowledged. Except that this time... this time it would be different. Sienar did not himself lack for creativity, or for resources; indeed, SieSys herself was an enormous enterprise, a powerful force in the arms market in its own right. KDY's myth of invincibility was rooted in Kuat himself, Sienar believed. Disgusting man... but proud, and with every right to be proud. As a man, he lacks much--but through KDY, he lacks nothing. But this time, Kuat... this time, I have you. * * * "...and with that, ladies and gentlemen, I come now to the piece de resistance of the new Sienar System catalogue!" Sienar was walking across a massive stage, with oversized television monitors now displaying the SieSys logo in front of an closed white-and-gold curtain; hundreds, if not thousands of cameras and spectators followed his every gesticulation. "No disrespect to Alexander the Great or Genghis Khan, but the modern military commander's task is more complex than ever before in history. He is a savant, dealing with an infinity of ever-shifting variables/ He is an artist, his decisions in battle on a knife's edge between masterpiece and abomination." Sienar was no longer feeling nervous--his excitement was too much, radiating even through his professional, businesslike demeanor on the stage. "How often do we forget the vital roles of Command and Control, of Logistics, in success on the battlefield! At Sienar Systems, we are concerned with more than merely creating ever-more-fanciful ways of killing each other--" (This, of course, an obvious reference to Kuat; a few cheers and whistles were heard from the crowd) "--we are concerned with the professionalization of War! With ensuring that War, that bane of Humanity which refuses to go gently into that good night, is conducted in only the best possible manner--only then, when a Nation's army is efficient and decisive, is it at its strongest! And only when power is brought to the powerless, and order is brought to chaos--only then will Humanity finally transcend to a New Order of Peace and Prosperity!" The crowd's excitement crescendoed as Sienar smoothly made his way to the side of the stage, stretched out his right hand, and calmly--though with more than a touch of pride in his voice--announced: "Ladies and gentlemen, from Sienar Systems, I am pleased to present to you--the Mobile Command Vehicle!" With that, the curtain parted--and the crowd burst into applause almost immediately. Posted Image "What the Caesars would not have given for the MCV! The ability to control whole armies no longer resides far from the front--but in the vanguard! No longer will the Fog of War blind commanders and incapacitate offenses! Never again must the General and his panoply of War remain static and vulnerable--but now mobile, and impregnable!" Though not as huge as the Juggernauts had been, the MCV still made a formidable impression in its own right at nearly 70 feet long and 25 feet tall. It was big, then--but not absurdly so; this, everyone in the audience realized, would be a big seller on the export market. And that was even before Sienar continued: "But we at Sienar Systems see no limits to our creations! With the technology suites removed, there is room for eighty fully-armed combat troops with the Mobile Personnel Vehicle variant! Whole platoons can be deployed onto the battlefield, clad in impregnability!" The crowd was on its feet now, and Sienar allowed himself to embrace the moment. * * * Everyone agreed that Sienar Systems had thrown down an imposing gauntlet in front of Kuat Drive Yards in the midst of their endless struggle for supremacy in the arms market. Sienar had more than redeemed himself from his disastrous previous showing; indeed, many began openly speculating as to whether SieSys, spurred on by such a strong centerpiece as the MCV/MPV, was on its way to dethroning KDY outright. As he made his way to the next stage for the final presentation of the day, flanked by two Legionnaires amidst a mass of newfound admirers, Sienar looked to the man on the platform he was approaching. Moff Kuat--as ever without the gray cap that the other Moffs wore--noticed Sienar looking at him, and bowed his head while applauding sincerely. Kuat had been impressed, Sienar knew, and he relished the feeling--until Kuat returned upright, a ferocious smile on his face. A smile Sienar was all too familiar with. And in that moment, Sienar realized that he was, once again, about to lose to Kuat. "I would first like to applaud my peer, Moff Sienar, for his superb work, " Kuat began. "He, and Sienar Systems, are no doubt feeling tremendously proud--and why not? Bravo, Moff Sienar!" The spectators began applauding once again. Sienar's internal organs began to tie themselves in Gordian knots. Kuat stood in the exact center of the front of a huge stage virtually identical to the one Sienar had just presented on; the only differences were the displays showing the letters "KDY"in blue on a black background, and another set of immense curtains, which instead of having a white-and-gold theme was--in rather poor taste, Sienar thought, though there were no rules for these sorts of things--like the monitors black with oversized "KDY" letters in blue. The Moff stood there for a moment in silence, hands behind his back, his head bowed. The crowd began to wonder what the normally-ostentatious Kuat was up to, and then they noticed that music was playing. Oh, you son of a bitch... thought Sienar as he soon as he recognized what was playing--though despite his best efforts he still could not help but crack the tiniest of smiles. It was Gustav Holst's magnum opus, Mars, Bringer of War. As it was playing, the "KDY" curtains began to part and revealed--nothing. Oh, this is going to be really, really bad.... The confused murmuring which sprouted spontaneously was silence just as quickly when a loud--though not loud enough to overwhelm the music, Sienar noted with a sigh--whirring sound was heard. Sienar recognized the sound as that of industrial doors opening--except these were clearly very large doors. And then... ...slowly... ...rising from the depths like a Leviathan... Oh, that's a railgun, Sienar recognized. Oh, and it's a big one too.... The crowd gasped as a titanic superstructure followed. Mars, that most magnificent of orchestrations, began to race faster and faster as more and more of the Colossus revealed itself. The engineering just to put this whole display together... ugh.... An enormous base with a pair of tread mechanisms which dwarfed the entirety of the MCV, and finally the entire machine was revealed--precisely as Mars reached the triumphal climax. There was nothing to be heard except Holst--the crowd was simply too dumbfounded by their awe. "Ladies and gentlemen," Kuat finally spoke. "From Kuat Drive Yards I give you: Dreadnought." Posted Image That was it. But then, that was all that needed to be said, because there was a 100-foot-tall, 60-foot-wide Dreadnought-class Landship before them. The crowd roared, Kuat raised his hands in triumph, and Sienar could only shake his head. Just like last time.... ((I've really wanted to get some of the other Moffs more involved in RPing; Sienar and Kuat, as we've seen, are big-time weapons contractors. I've always been into naval warfare, especially from the period of the First World War, and I've always held a special place in my heart for HMS Dreadnought. Launched in 1906, this was the first real modern battleship--so advanced that it rendered everything that had come before it obsolete. It was so significant that battleships soon became known as "dreadnoughts", and the "dreadnought race" was on between all the major powers--a major factor in the outbreak of WWI. That's the idea intended by KDY's new Dreadnought-class Landship--a whole new type of weapon which (hopefully) everyone who is anyone will desperately desire to have. Now, I'll be the first one to say that I don't want to see swarms of these sorts of things around; they should be treated like a country would treat a new battleship or aircraft carrier--as something unique, and potent, and simply awesome. It should be a measure of pride for a nation to even have one, and even the biggest of countries should be able to maintain no more than a few. This was another fascinating facet of the real Dreadnought race, as numerous countries began contracting British and German shipyards to produce them their own shiny new dreadnoughts, even resorting to bankrupting their budgets and holding national fundraising drives. I think the most fair thing to do is obviously to just to let anyone who wants one, buy one--or start making their own (although ideally I'd like Dreadnought to sort of be the standard-bearer). What you do with them, I really don't care--just as long as we can be mature enough to recognize that a weapon like this should be considered rare, and valuable, and, of course vulnerable--very tough, of course, requiring a lot of effort to bring down sure, but hardly immortal. Oh, and railguns do exist and work just fine (the real problem is that they're really big), nuclear-powered military vehicles are hardly anything new, and something this big can work just fine on land: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helepolis . So why, you ask, don't real armies build these? Easy--why would you? An Abrams MBT already outclasses virtually everything else in the world--this would just be a ridiculous waste of money. Ah, but of course, everyone here has populations in the billions and God knows how many top-notch tanks. Our world is outlandish and over-the-top--why shouldn't our weapons be? :B So yeah, it's big, and stupid, but it's supposed to be big and stupid, because all arms races are :lol: )) Edited by The Authority of the Grand Moff, Nov 1 2011, 06:02 PM.
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11:33 AM Jul 13