Notes : Chapter 133 of Manaforged Robotics has been written and added to the queue !
Well. Everything was going better. Then the universe decided that wasn't good, and I hurt my upper back, so it hurts like hell.
Just...fucking wonderful. I can still write (slowly), but the constant, lancing pain isn't helping. And it's nothing compared to when I try to move my arms a certain way or try to twist my torso.
Hurray. Just as things were starting to stabilize.
Anyway, here's another lore file from our dear princess Cassissa !
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Artillery. Insert formatting. Director even gave up on commenting on this. Eh.
Seldom have I felt the dread I have when I had to gather the notes and thoughts of our engineers and artificers on this topic.
On the one hand, Crystal's artillery remains comfortably behind ours in terms of both sophistication and power.
On the other hand, there is considerable evidence that the reason for that is that she did not need better artillery, and the guns she does have were used with incredible levels of effectiveness. Not to mention the fact that, by any standards, including those of the Tark Hegemony, Crystal's armies are extremely heavy in terms of artillery, an imbalance which only increases as the infantry units take losses, as preserving the guns appears to be a top priority for the dungeon core and her officers.
It should be noted that almost all of Crystal's artillery has demonstrated the use of enchanted or runic ammunition at some point, and it should be assumed that such special ordnance can be deployed by any of them if needed.
Let's start at the beginning.
Field Guns.
Field guns. Cannon, point at the enemy, boom, no enemy. So simple even the Elkis Republic could apply the principle with their bronze bombards.
Crystal employs two main classes of them. The first one were simple muzzle-loaded twelve pounder smoothbore cannons, which ceased production at roughly the same time as her musket golems, and most of which have been sold to the New Republic, who has used them to admittedly impressive effect.
The second type are breech-loaded rifled guns that would not look out of place in the Tarkian army or our own reserve armories. Roughly one hundred millimeter in bore, they are simple, rugged and effective, and seem to continue being in production, though in relatively low numbers. They seem capable of extremely high elevation, as there are numerous reports of them engaging airships at close range. They also appear to be mounted as broadside guns on her corvettes, though that is sadly unconfirmed, as none of these vessels or their wreckage have ever been studied due to their self-destruct systems.
Howitzers.
The bread and butter of Crystal's artillery and personally, the type that worry me the most. Many in the ministerial cabinet have focused on the missiles, flashy as they are, but I fear that this more conventional artillery is the real danger.
Crystal has deployed three types of howitzers.
The first type are of the exact same caliber as the rifled guns, and seem to have interchangeable ammunition. Though they have different breech designs, longer barrels and different shells and propulsion charges to better fit their mission, making them distinct weapons. Uniquely, though production appears to have ceased and the reserve sold to the New Republic, some of these guns continue serving in Crystal's armies. These 'light howitzers' have nonetheless proven incredibly destructive, as evidence during the siege of Pavrow, with general Amelia Loveheart using them and heavier artillery to pound the strongpoints of the fortress city into submission before the arrival of the siege ship Frank Exchange of Views.
The second type are the mainstay of Crystal's artillery. Simply a scaled up, heavier version of the light howitzers, these 'heavy' guns seem to sport a bore of roughly one hundred and fifty millimeters, and have considerable range and power. Their characteristics are not so remarkable as their numbers, Crystal fielding literally hundreds of them and even slotting them onto her mechs (see my report on the Mackies). These guns have been used with abandon during every battle she has fought and seem to benefit from a bottomless supply of shells, fed by an incredible logistics network that kept them active and seemingly unconcerned by ammunition shortages throughout the Asarian Civil War, despite the prodigious amount of ordnance expended in every battle, including the constant, low level engagements during the retreat.
Interestingly, these appear to be the only up to date weapon still in production that Crystal has sold the New Republic, at least before it became part of the Empire.
These guns also appear to make up the bulk of the firepower of her mesa fortress at the heart of Rebirth, though it is hard to tell, their firing cycles, range and payloads appear to confirm that.
The third, and final type of howitzers are the rather famous railway cannon turned naval gun dubbed 'Bertha'. Apparently a reference to Terra, the first of these guns appeared as a mobile, rail mounted defense circling Crystal's mesa during the attack upon Rebirth by General Amelia Loveheart.
The weapon was destroyed by a commando raid, and its landbound form has not been sighted since. However, numerous new guns were built and integrated into a two barrel turret used for her frigates. These have proven devastating in the numerous naval engagements she has participated in, and what little intelligence we have been able to gather about her new heavy cruiser, which departed Rebirth towards parts unknown, indicates that it is positively covered in the damned things.
A tentative estimation of its bore size, since none have been captured or analyzed, is that it is somewhere in the three hundred millimeter range, putting it comfortably inside our capital-ship artillery classification.
Needless to say, these guns have proven utterly devastating. In fact, their deployment on frigates has revived the movement within the skyfleet to resume the production of lighter vessels with a single heavy weapons battery. They have even approached me and offered both bribes and...other things I will not record here but can be seen in Internal Security Report WLY-1515, in exchange for amending my reports to push such a viewpoint.
Honestly I cannot say if they are correct or not. Not in bribing me, but in resuming production of those vessels. While some of them have fallen in the hands of pirates (see the report on the, now destroyed, Creative Acquisition and its captain, Sylvia Hiddenvale) and proven effective, it should be noted that none of our naval designers had contemplated mounting capital ship weapons on frigates, even in their wildest dreams. Nevertheless, it has clearly worked for Crystal, and perhaps adopting that doctrine would bring us some benefit.
Finally, the last category.
Missiles.
Crystal's missiles -and rockets, yes I know the difference, yes the artificers kept lecturing me, no I don't care- is something I see a worrying amount of attention directed towards. While undeniably effective, I wish to caution that they appear to be specialized weapons for destroying high value targets, and the bulk of the damage in any engagement came from more conventional artillery.
Nevertheless, they have proven highly dangerous.
Categorizing them is a bit complicated, as they are both ammunition and the weapon. There are four main classes we have ascertained however. They will not be divided by payload due to the remarkable variety of them.
The first one is light rockets. Used as infantry portable heavy weapons in disposable launchers, and fired in volleys from shoulder-mounted racks on Mackies, they are remarkably effective. They generally serve one of three roles : to punch a hole through infantry for a special tactic with fragmentation warhead, to bring down a heavy target with armor piercing warheads, or, in some highly specific instances, collapse wards using null warheads.
The latter, specifically, has caused considerable alarm. Our military routinely uses null weapons this small, but generally in limited numbers and, more importantly, we are incapable of delivering them at range. In truth, ranged null weapons are vanishingly rare in our arsenal, seen as too unreliable, even on larger weapons.
It appears, however, that Crystal has optimized the weapons to the point where the failure rate is acceptable. How many of them fail is an educated guess at best, but sheer volume of fire seems to have offset the abysmal success rate of the weapons, allowing a rocket barrage to seriously threaten the wards of gryphon knights or even airships.
The second type is artillery rockets. Used famously to crush Amelia Loveheart's army, and bringing the siege of Rebirth to an end (if one could even call that battle a 'siege' to begin with), they have made sporadic, but sparing appearances. They appear to have a fair amount of range and reasonable firepower, but would be easier to intercept and more expensive in the long run than a howitzer artillery barrage, hence their relative rarity.
The third type is 'proper' missiles. Why Crystal built these we have no real clue, but they are guided, incredibly agile and have proven perfectly adept at intercepting airborne targets. Though lighter than what the ones our various military branches use for shooting down airships, they have proven sufficient against UDC vessels and Gryphon knights.
As the name indicates, they are guided and seem commonly deployed by her ground troops. Her Mackies include a dorsal launcher of them, and the artificers estimate it is only a question of time before they are integrated as secondary weapons on naval vessels.
Which brings me to the last bit of Crystal's artillery we will cover in this document.
Her siege missiles are well known and feared. Built to be exclusively used by dedicated siege ships, two of which currently exist (the So Much for Subtlety and the Frank Exchange of Views, part of the First and Second Imperial Armies respectively, as there does not seem to be a separate command structure for naval assets in the current Imperial organization, at least at the army level), they are absolutely devastating. The exact yield of the warheads is hard to estimate, but we think it is around a ton of TNT, and the siege ships carry hundreds of them.
They are absolutely horrific to behold, and worrying, appear to be able to hit a variety of targets. Unlike our own bombardment missiles, these weapons appear to be extremely maneuverable, and during the latter stages of the Asarian Civil War, began exhibiting the use of decoys, chaff, Arcane Counter Measures (ACM), and advanced evasion, enabling them to penetrate even extremely tightly woven nets of mage point defense fire.
They also seem to have a kind of 'superspeed' variant, shared with the standard missiles, that trades payload and range for unparalleled speed, allowing them to run the gauntlet of defensive fire even more effectively.
Given all this, I understand why so many are concerned by these weapons. While the howitzers look reassuringly primitive, these missiles are a type of weapon close, very close, to matching or even surpassing our own.
Nevertheless, they appear to be strictly limited in deployment so far, and appear to be a specialty weapon still, only used by very specific units.
We shall see if that remains the case, as Crystal and her armies begin laying siege to Southmarch.