MG144-HE007 Onager Super Tank

Herosine Empire

144th (10 or 12mm).

Size (Bounding Box, assembled, howitzer): 91.5mm x 5.64mm x 33.36mm

Comes with three main gun barrels and four Psiloi.

The main gun barrels are designed to be removed and replaced during a game. Make sure that when painting, both the guns and the slots in the turret where they sit are all painted. They are designed slightly loose when unpainted, so that when painted, the additional thickness of the paint will provide enough friction to keep them from sliding around.
______________________________________________

Virtually no other power could afford to field the Onager. With a price tag over ten times greater than a “typical” super heavy tank, only the exorbitantly wealthy Herosines would even contemplate such cost. The bleeding edge technology it uses would in the hands of less affluent powers would experimental and impossibly expensive to run in the field.

Entering service in 2328, like the Eques, the Onager has been incrementally upgraded during its service, thanks to the modular nature of Herosine technology. The current –I version is the first major upgrade, outfitted with the new advanced shield generators. Like its stablemates the Eques and Turma, it carries nano-replicators granting it a configurable main gun and considerable self-repair capabilities. It also has substantial combat endurance, thanks to both highly efficient fuel and power systems and the comfortable crew facilities. The latter are relatively luxurious due to the considerable automation that allows the Onager to function with only four crew – driver, primary and secondary gunners and the commander. The vehicle’s advanced sensor system is supplemented by no less than four sockets for Psiloi Orb Scouts.

The Onager mounts a terrifying array of weapons, which combined with the no-expense-spared computer and crew stations means its standard configuration can fulfil multiple combat roles.

The Onager mounts four standard twin Tier 7 lazer point-defence turrets – two on the forward hull and two on the turret. Lacking the Turma’s disruptor pulses or the Eques’ gatlings for anti-infantry operations, the Onager instead relies on sheer volume of fire.

The turret is equipped with two SGMAT-20 Sagitta rocket pods. These pods are the same design as the Eques’s rocket pod configuration, except they are not nano-re-configurable.

The Onager’s main warhead firepower comes instead from the twenty-four vertical launch missile tubes mounted on the turret. While each tube contains only a single Tier 20 SGMAT-25 Exstinctor missile, the vertical tubes can be easily reloaded in a bay or by a repair vehicle, either by conventional methods or by simply pouring a solution of nano-replication substrate into the tube.

The main gun has three configurations. All three are articulated at the rear and by a highly advanced telescopic support at the front granting the Onager an elevation of an astonishing 90º with its heavy weapons. The telescopic support itself, composed for highly advanced alloys to withstand the forces, costs as much as the Eques’s main turret weapons.

The primary configuration is a 300mm railcannon – essentially a scaled-up version of the Eques’s railguns. The barrel is disproportionally thicker for the calibre to stand the dramatically increased stresses. The weapon has only a kilometre greater range than the Eques as most of the power is concentrated into a relatively short-range punch.

The secondary configuration is a 350mm smoothbore howitzer. It fires a single anti-matter shell up to ten kilometres, rated at Tier 26 under 1000m. While this payload is slightly lighter than other similar sized weapons, the Onager’s weapon has the advantage of speed, range and improved accuracy. And one hit from a shell can still easily destroy a bunker or super heavy tank if unshielded. The shells cannot be nanoreplicated and the ten rounds are stored in a magazine in the hull.

The final configuration is a twin Tier 15 disruptor cannon system, in an atypical configuration of one barrel mounted above the other. Though this lacks the short-range power of the railcannon, it has a 15km range in atmosphere and is quite capable of destroying starfighters – or even, if operated in the vacuum of space, damaging unwary starships.

The Herosines wanted the Onager to be largely self-sufficient, and that required it being able to undertake some basic engineering tasks. Rather than fitting a dozer blade or cutting device in the traditional sense, the Herosines instead equipped the Onager with an engineering array consisting of pair of automated disintegrator ball turrets at the front of the hull. Following from the inspiration of the Cybertanks, these are further supplemented by two independent micro-tractor beams attached to each turret. This, combined with a dedicated AI system to operate and process the system, allows the Onager to carve a path through a forest, demolish buildings or to literally slice up the land and tractor it away to form a tank-scape. The disintegrators have a range of up to a kilometre, and can be a dangerous weapon in their own right, though their position on the hull means that most frequently, they will be occluded by terrain.

The Onager can thus fulfil many functions. In addition to operating as a heavy tank, the howitzer and missiles mean the Onager can act as artillery support – complete with its own spotters in the form of the Psiloi. The Onager’s commander’s station is equipped with a full holosuite which is spacious enough to allow a second station to be nano-configured, enabling it to function as dedicated command vehicle in its own right. (Though this makes the commander’s station only just the right side of cramped.) It possesses the same anti-aircraft targeting as the Eques, so combined with the disruptor cannons, it can act as an air-defence vehicle. And finally, it is even capable of carrying out limited engineering operations with the engineering array.

The Onager is a formidable vehicle armed with a terrifying array of weapons. All the flexibility could not come without a price, however – the Onager’s armour and shields is slightly lighter than most similar super heavy tanks, though still very large by the standards of most main battle tanks.