Alliance Vehicles: Behemoth-Pattern Mobile Fortress

ST/HP: 1,000

Hand/SR: -4/6

HT: 11

Move: 1/17 (+5)

LWt.: 990

Load: 9.5

SM: +8

Occ.: 25AS

DR: 3000/1500*

Range: NA

Cost: $1.45B

Loc.: 4CGTt4X

*The Behemoth-Pattern Mobile Fortress has a DR 3000 armor on top and over its primary turret; the rest of the armor is DR 1500. All armor is composite (double DR vs plasma weapons and shaped charge attacks)

Notes

Mobile Orbital Fortress Electronics:

• Large FTL Communication Array: 30-parsec range.
  
  
• Large Holographic Radio: 10,000 mile range (deep orbital); “full sized” holographic console.
  
  
• Large Ultra-Scanner: 100-mile scan, 10-mile imaging/bioscan; 360°;
  
  
• Targeting Computer: +5 to hit target with a scan-lock.
  
  
• Traditional Fusion Reactor: 50 years of fuel.
  
  
• Security: Simple Electronic Locks and security cameras.
  
  
• Life Support: Sealed, with NBC filters and environmental control, and one hour of air.
  
  

Mobile Orbital Fortress Personnel and Facilities

• Command Crew: Commander (rank 5); Executive Officer (Typically a Commander); Driver; Comm Officer.
  
  
• Facilities: War Room (+0 Strategy); Briefing Room (up to 10); Sickbay (3 beds); Operation Theater (1 bed);
  
  
• Food and Accommodations: Suficient bunks for 21 people, and 2 cabins, one typically reserved for the fortress commander and the other for the resident noble. Typically has 2 medics, 2 mechanics, 2 drivers, and up to 10 soldiers and/or gunners. Sufficient cargo space for one month of food and 50 lbs of stowage per crewman.
  
  

Mobile Fortress Complement:

• Spacecraft: One landing pad capable of supporting a ship up to SM +6 (150 tons).
  
  
• Soldiers: up to 10 alliance regulars with an arsenal with sufficient room for 100 lbs per regular;
  
  
• Materiel: Room for up to two Sactuary-Pattern Emergency Response Vehicles and one Lancer-Pattern Hovercycle; though more often a Behemoth will carry a single Sanctuary-pattern Emergency Response Vehicle and up to 5 Lancer-Pattern Hovercycles.
  
  
• Cargo: Up to 1500 additional lbs.
  
  

A Behemoth is controlled from a bridge overlooking the battlefield from the front of the craft. The bridge has three control spaces: a driver seat (and typically navigation), an engineers seat (the overall condition of the vehicle, sensors and minor comms) and the command sear which overlooks both, as well as has an overview of the battlefield, and handles important communications). All controls are computerized, thus any seat can take over any other seat.

A Behemoth has 6 weapons: an orbital artillery cannon, a tank cannon, and four external weapon mounts. The orbital artillery cannon is mounted in an armored turret that has the ability to raise to a full 90 degrees. The second, smaller cannon is a “mere” tank cannon and can be slightly lowered to target vehicles closer to it. The four remaining weapons are open-mounted gatling blasters, used by the crew to protect the Behemoth from aerial attack; they can double as anti-personnel when necessary.

Weapon	Dmg	Acc	Range	Ewt	RoF	Shots	ST	Bulk	Rcl
Orbital Cannon	6d×60(5) pi inc	9	120 mi/ 350 mi	430t	1	35	NA	-NA	2
Blaster Cannon	3d×25(5) burn	9	2mi/5 mi	4000	1	15/Fp	150M	-10	2
Gatling Blaster	6dx5(5) burn	9	9mi/27mi	1600	3	200/F	M	-10	2

Look and Feel

The Behemoth is the largest military land-vehicle outside of the Arkhaian Spiral. It dominates its local area, roughly equivalent to a warehouse or office building in size, and more closely resembles a land-based destroyer or cruiser than a tank, which accurately reflects its role. The tank is a total of 100 feet long (~30 yards), and about 25 feet wide, and about two stories tall, not accounting for the raised cannon. The vehicle is split in two, separated by body articulation; both sides have their own set of caterpillar tracks, and the rear is about twice the size of the forward and primarily houses the orbital artillery cannon, while the front houses the bridge, vehicle bay, landing pad, a smaller turret, and accommodations and cargo.

The vehicle can be entered via ground-level hatches on the front or rear section of the vehicle, or via the one-story vehicle bay hatch on the front of the vehicle, or the landing pad atop the front section. Those who enter the rear of the vehicle find little more than tight access passages skirting around the massive rotational space of the orbital artillery turret, power cables, and vehicular engines. Those who enter from the front find themselves either in the vehicle bay, or in access passages leading the bunks and arsenal in the lower half of the front section, while those who enter through the landing pad find themselves in a hallway leading to the aristocrat’s cabin or the bridge.

The top of the front of the vehicle is mostly dominated by its turret and its bridge. The turret sits atop and to one side of the forward section, with the rest taken up by anti-air open mounted guns with gunshields attended by crewmen, and a landing pad. The bridge juts out from the front, overlooking the battlefield and perches atop the vehicular bay. A holographic communication system sits just behind the commander, allowing him to turn to address whomever may be speaking to him without worrying about distractions from the battlefield. The two crewmen actually controlling the vehicle sit closer to the great, diamondoid window, overlooking the battlefield. The bridge is roomy, similar to an actual bridge on a starship. Behind the bridge are two full cabins, one for the Behemoth commander, the other for the resident nobleman.

The bottom of the front of the vehicle consists of a large vehicular bay with a space for general cargo, lying just beneath the bridge. Behind that, one can find a suite of bunks, the arsenal (which houses weaponry and armor for the Behemoth’s security forces and the resident nobleman), and a small sickbay. Behind this, near to the “joint” that connects both sides, is “engineering,” which handles power generation and general maintanence and repair of the vehicle.

The Behemoth-Pattern vehicle is the ultimate expression in the Alliance’s belief of the paramount importance of planetary defense. Most planets considered important to the Alliance have at least one, most have three to six, and Caliban has a dozen, with a handful more submersible “Leviathan-pattern” variants that operate at sea for months at a time. They fill a similar role to the Phalanx-pattern Orbital Artillery, representing a mobile platform from which a planet can “return fire” at ships engaging in orbital bombardment. As they tend to be very expensive, they generally integrate with a network of Phalanx-pattern orbital artillery, and sit at the center of them. Its anti-air defense, considerable armor, and ability to fire at in-coming ground vehicles means it can protect the rest of the artillery around it.

The Behemoth also tends to be a mobile base for an artistocrat on his world: if he wants to go somewhere on his world, he might button up inside his vehicle and let it trundle to somewhere near his desired location, and then go explore via Charger-pattern hovercycle or Sanctuary-pattern emergency response vehicle. If something goes wrong, he can quickly return to his fortress and seek medical aid from the on-board sickbay, rest in his cabin, communicate with the outside world via the extensive comms hardware, or even extract himself with a Prestige-pattern shuttle via the landing pad. This makes it a wealthy aristocrat’s “home away from home.”

The primary drawback for a Behemoth, in addition to its exorbitant cost, is its mass. While specialist vehicles can carry one from world to world, they make poor assault vehicles and cost a great deal to move around. Generally, they are deployed only to worlds recently absorbed into the alliance as a temporary measure until true orbital fortifications can be built, and then left there as a supplementary defense. The worlds of the Galactic Core often have scattered remains of Behemoth’s left behind during the disintegration of the Federation: the Empire mostly ignores these (unless they feel they can present a real and immediate threat if not dealt with) and leaves them to be devoured by scavengers or repurposed by a few, enterprising rebels or pirates.