“I believe fully in the gods. I have seen them walk amongst us.”
-Unknown soldier on Angel’s Tear upon witnessing a behemoth.
There are two things that can strike absolute fear into a soldier’s heart. The first is the blasts and carnage when a powerful metaphysical arrives. The second is the rumbling off in the distance from a colossus or behemoth.
The ultimate weapons of war, colossi rule the battlefield. The average colossus stands 20 meters tall, with a length of 65 meters. The regular colossi are massive tanks. Their treads are broken up into dozens of smaller sections, so that even if one section breaks, the colossus can still rumble onwards.
In the main turret, the colossus will pack starship-grade weaponry, only a few degrees below what will be caught by a planet’s entropy field. Usually this means a large mag or corona-cannon, depending on if the colossus is geared towards longer or closer range engagements. The main purpose of this gun is to take down heavily fortified positions or other colossi. A colossus, at heart, is a siege engine.
At the prow of the landship, a pulse cannon will normally be equipped. It will serve the dual purpose of removing any obstacle in front of the colossus, or to atomize any fool that gets too close to it.
Secondary weapons will cover the colossus in abundance. From the superstructure of the landship, two “arms” will extend to either side, holding a turret from a superheavy tank underneath them. That level of firepower from such a vantage point can take out entire tank columns in moments. Further secondaries cover the hull to deal with low flying aircraft, to infantry, golems, and light vehicles. The Ashuan Despot colossus also has a pair of rotary triple-barreled 220mm mag-howitzers, which it can target with precision, due to the secondary role colossi fulfill.
Colossi are equipped with immensely powerful sensors. They act as the eyes and ears of any offensive. They can overpower lower-level scrambler systems, allowing for easy targeting at long range by their escorts. Their power and awareness make them high-value targets, but they are more than up to the job of taking inordinate amounts of punishment.
Beyond the meters of thick xanthium, colossi will employ sheets of mythril. The combination of the two already make it near impervious to most damage, but it will also be equipped with a starship-grade warden system and energy shields.
Their status makes them only fit to be operated by metaphysicals. The technomancers that control these titanic engines meld themselves with the machine. The sensors become their eyes, its treads their legs, its weapons their fists they use to crush the infidels before them. The blending of the technological with the sorcerous, propels the capabilities of the machine far beyond what could be accomplished with mechanical ability alone. Colossi can achieve greater speeds than even light vehicles under the right circumstances, and repair damage mid-battle with wrecks or enemy vehicles.
But the colossi are not even the most powerful ground weapons available. The behemoths are in a league of their own. The Dragon class behemoth is a bipedal 80 meter tall monstrosity, along with its direct competitor the Diamond. They mount the most powerful weaponry that will not be caught by a planet’s entropy field. Only the most powerful of technomancers are permitted to operate such revered machines. The use of sorcery is even further integrated in these masters of war. A Diamond can sprint like a normal human, and a Dragon can fly with the massive thruster wings on its back. Only with the metaphysicals is this possible.
While nothing besides powerful metaphysicals, a cadre of colossi, or another behemoth could possibly take on these god-craft, seeing them on the battlefield is extremely rare. Beyond the exorbitant material cost to manufacture one of these, such powerful technomancers to pilot them are in ever short supply. Long gone are the days of legions of behemoths walking amongst the battlefield.
Most were destroyed over 500 years ago, during the Gore War, on the renamed planet of Angel’s Tear. Hundreds of behemoths were deployed to stop a massive Chained push. But almost all were lost to technovirus behemoths and brutality of Morskar and three other Heirs to Forever. Even the apocalyptic weapons of the behemoths could not break the chains of the Heirs, rendering them all but invincible. Further still, many of the production facilities dedicated to making behemoths were ravaged during the Gore War.
While the knowledge was not totally lost on how to make behemoths, it wasn’t until 1850 A.E.G. that the first new behemoth came off the assembly line. Even so, they remain an absolute rarity, only the most important battlefields will witness a behemoth walking amongst it. And woe be to the army that has to face it.