Ground Warfare in the 101st century NY

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Ground Warfare in the 101st century NY

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Ground Warfare in the 101st century NY

A General Outline

The 101st century battlefield is very different than in previous eras, but the change is evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Armoured fighting vehicles are still the primary battlefield arm of decision, but are heavily supported by a wide range of new and old vehicle types and technologies. Infantry are still a primary asset, but tend to be wholly robotic or greatly enhanced technologically and physically. Generally, dominance of space is more important than dominance of the air, but the advent of ground-based anti-orbital and anti-starship weaponry as well as various shielding technologies mean that even dominance of space is no guarantee of easy victory if anything less than total annihilation is desired.


Combat Environments

Such is the scale of a typical military campaign in the 101st century that invasions of planets and moons are a mere sideshow, and are merely occupied to ensure that all bases are covered. The typical modern battlefield is usually a single large habitat or part of a Megastructure, although more exotic locations such as the hull surfaces of large starships, the exterior surfaces of habitats or megastructures, asteroid fortesses and similar fortified positions, or even the interiors of especially large starships are also not uncommon as arenas of ground-based conflict. As a result of this wide range of potential battlefields, adaptations to hard vacuum and exotic atmospheres are considered standard. Infantry are also commonly issued with gravpacks and/or miniature maneuvering thrusters in order to aid movement in battlefields that have low or non-existant gravity.
The battlefields vary greatly in nature as well as in location. In addition to the typical range of terrain and climate commonly found on terrestrial planets, the "megaterrain" found in large habitats and megastructures has to be taken into account - they can take the form of vast, open plains stretching for hundreds of thousands of miles in every direction, undulating deserts in the centre of grand hypercontinents, enormous oceans hundreds of kilometres deep and a million miles across, and mindboggling "teracities" that can cover entire hypercontinents and the spires of which can jut up hundreds of kilometres above the local atmosphere.
In the wide open megaplains and hyperdeserts, as well as on their smaller terrestrial cousins, large armoured vehicles are the kings of the battlefield, their powerful long-range guns able to dominate the field for hundreds and thousands of miles around them, as well as controlling a vast hemisphere of airspace around them. In such battlefields, there are three choices: be fast, be tough, or be dead. The situation is similar in the oceans - megabattleships, megacarriers and their submarine cousins are surrounded by clouds of smaller vessels which provide a "screen" against attack by smaller aggressors while the larger vessels duke it out.
In teracities and similarly crowded arenas, massive armoured vehicles have their place, but are more vulnerable to attack - the ample amount of cover provided by such environments means that it is far easier to prepare ambushes, lay traps, and in extremis sneak up to very large armoured vehicles and slap a powerful explosive charge on their hulls. While super-heavy armoured vehicles have no problem smashing their way through buildings and such, it still slows them down somewhat, increasing their vulnerability. A more sensible tactic for a super-heavy vehicle moving through a teracity is to lay a "creeping barrage" down before it, therefore prematurely detonating any mines and similar traps.
But it is in teracities and similar built-up areas where infantry, smaller vehicles and robotic units come into their own; the buildings, their ruins and the hills of rubble provide ample opportunities for the execution of small-scale tactics. Nimble dog-sized Spiderbots and their larger equivalents Battlecrabs can easily pick their way through the rubble, while infantry, robotic and otherwise, can find themselves plenty of cover. Units like the Killapede (greatly feared by infantry) are especially designed to worm their way through heavily ruined areas, while the similar but larger Caterkiller is designed to hunt down armoured vehicles in such an environment.
It is in moderately built-up battlefields that the greatest variety of unit types is used, with the emphasis varying depending on just how built up a given battlefield is.
In the atmospheres of planets, habitats and megastructures, the role of airships, fixed-wing aircraft and other airborne units is marginal, rarely more than a support role. But in the atmosphere of gas giants, they truly come into their own - with no solid surface to support armoured vehicles, vast swarms of fighter craft clash and heavily armed, heavily armoured airships and super-heavy aircraft engage in long range duels with each other or with free-floating sky fortresses. Deeper down, as the atmosphere gets thicker, battles increasingly resemble submarine warfare. Below the surface of the liquid metallic hydrogen mantle, however, combat is extremely rare, although transit through it is possible, enabling the execution of sneak attacks.


Commencing a Ground Battle

The initiation of ground combat usually takes place when the invader has destroyed enough orbital defences, defending spacecraft and ground-based anti-orbital/anti-starship emplacements/vehicles in order to effect a landing with a level of casualties deemed acceptable by the aggressor. The invader may have to bombard the planet/habitat/megastructure in question in order to bring down it's shields, and theatre shields may require a similar if suitably scaled-down approach. Further, if the objective is an enclosed structure, for example a Megashell, it will be necessary to vapourise a hole in it which you can patch up later, or if that option is not available, then a costly forcible takeover of transfer facilities is required.
Once the spatial defences are sufficiently compromised, the invader can then start landing their forces in Dropships, Landing Barges and Drop Pods of all sizes, at strategically chosen locations. All forms of landing craft come with weaponry that enables them to deal with ground-based forces, and their size is such that they present a threat even to super-heavy vehicles. Some landing craft themselves also double as super-heavy ground vehicles, being equipped with massive tracks or enormous wheels to facilitate movement, while others can move themselves through water, functioning in a similar manner to megaships and megacarriers.
Airborne units are usually deployed directly from their carrying spacecraft, equipped with disposable re-entry packs. Airships and super-heavy aircraft have enough power to stop themselves when thrown into an atmosphere.
As well as landing craft, it is common for the invader to send down militarised Spores, Seeds and Eggs to act as support and backup. While their effect is not immediately felt, the timely intervention of Spore-built forces later in the battle can be a deciding factor in whether an action is successful or not.


Unit Types

With the exception of Robotics and Infantry, the unit types listed below can be controlled by a biological crew, an onboard AI, controlled remotely or a combination of two or all of the three. Those carrying biological crew/passengers are environmentally sealed and have their own air supply and biological recycling systems for long-term missions.

Robotics - A generic name for robotic units that aren't easily classified or do not fill in traditional roles. They can be ground-based, airborne or waterborne. Robotics can vary in size from nanotechnological foglets upwards, although they are rarely larger than small vehicles. Examples include the Spiderbots, Battle Crabs, Killapedes and Caterkillers already mentioned, but also more exotic units like Metamorphics, Goobots, Teambots and Deathwatch Beetle kamikaze bugbots. Such units are often carried and deployed from larger vehicles on an as-needed basis, and the smaller ones are even accompany or are carried by infantry units.

Infantry - The backbone of any occupational force, the advent of mass-produced artificial intelligence in most transgalactic societies means that such units are almost completely robotic, although the Fang are a notable exception, and some transgalactics have advanced enough technology to overcome the disadvantages of purely biological infantry units. Those biological units that are fielded are always issued with self-contained powered armour, and enhancements are extremely common amongst all but the Fang. Infantry of all kinds are almost always equipped with gravpacks, motive thrusters and similar movement enhancers, to enable them to rapidly move about the battlefield. Robotic infantry can be classified into two main types; advanced "generalists" that can use a wide variety of weapons and tactics, and teams of "specialists" that are designed to excel in a particular aspect of infantry warfare.

Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFVs) - By far the most common type of unit, AFVs are the undisputed masters of the ground battlefield. They come in an utterly huge variety of types, including armoured cars, APCs, MICVs, a veritable zoo of tanks from the diminutive Fast Light Scout Tanks to the lumbering Super-Heavy Assault tanks, Megatanks and largest of all, the Primary Assault Vehicles (PAVs). These type of vehicles generally sacrifice speed for thick armour, powerful shields and a devastating armament.

Close Air Support (CAS) - the flipside of the vehicle coin to AFVs, these vehicles emphasise speed over heavy armour, and have a comparitively limited range of weaponry available to them, as they can't handle too much in the way of recoil. Skimmers, hovertanks and similar vehicles fit in this category, filling a role somewhat similar to ancient helicopter gunships. Like Airborne units they are somewhat vulnerable to Anti-Aircraft fire, but in spite of this they have a vital role on the battlefield, filling the gaps between Aircraft units and AFVs.

Mobile Artillery - While the larger AFVs such as Megatanks and PAVs have mostly eclipsed the role that ancient artillery used to fill, there is still a need for small-scale indirect firepower on certain battlefields. This where the Mobile Artillery come in. Utilising "shoot and scoot" tactics, a typical unit finds a spot, braces itself, and using telemetry recieved from supporting units fires off a salvo towards a target before quickly moving off to another firing spot.

Emplaced Artillery - In contrast to Mobile Artillery, Emplaced Artillery is fixed in one place and does not move. Also, the armament is typically equal or greater to that of a PAV or other super-heavy vehicle, and weaponry strong enough to take on starships is far from uncommon. Emplaced Artillery posesses armour and shields that are proof against all but the heaviest of bombardments, and are often strong enough to withstand anything a ground-based vehicle can throw at it and require the firepower of a starship in order to overcome it.

Watercraft - These vehicles operate on the surfaces of seas and oceans, and also includes smaller vehicles such as fanboats, airboats, patrol craft and gunboats. Hovercraft of all sizes are included in this category, even though they are capable of moving over smooth solid surfaces. Frigates, Destroyers, Cruisers, Battlecruisers, Battleships and Carriers form the most numerous members of this category, and Megabattleships and Megacarriers form the largest. All but the smallest of watercraft also have supercavitating projectile turrets on the underside of their hulls in order to target submersibles, see below.

Submersibles - These are vehicles that operate underwater. The various classes of Submersible are a mixture of Aircraft and Watercraft classes, with Fighter Subs at the smaller end and Megasubmarines at the larger end. Weapons used by Submersibles include Blue-Green laser cannons, Supercavitating Torpedoes and projectile weapons, smart mines, surface launch missiles and Tunnel Boring Assault Craft.

Aircraft - In the 101st century, Aircraft are for the most part stuck between a rock and a hard place, especially if on the defending side of an assault; they are all to easily shot down by well-armed, well-armoured units on the ground if they attempt to stay low, and are vulnerable to energy weapon-based attack from both ground and orbital sources if they stay high. The two main exceptions are super-heavy aircraft, including airships, which can mount enough armour and shielding to make them worthwhile, and assaults on gas giants, where there is no solid surface and so airborne forces are the only kind for the job.

Exotica & Miscellany (E&M) - This includes everything that cannot be placed anywhere else, including plasma cavitating Translithic Assault Vehicles (TAVs), which can burrow through the crust, mantle and liquid core of a solid planet, Rocket-Propelled Gelidic Vehicles (RPGVs) designed to rapidly ski over polar ice caps and the surfaces of icy moons and planets, Ground Effect Vehicles (GEVs) such as ekranoplanes, armoured trains, and the huge variety of civilian/non-combat vehicles that have been converted to military use by Autofabricators - including militarised city-sized Land Cruisers...


Ground Combat and Autofabricators

Ground units are always accompanied by militarised Autofabs, which churn out supplies and ammunition, repair vehicles and bots, and given a little time can produce new units. It is not uncommon for Autofabs that have been cut off from their central command and control facilities to continue fighting years or even centuries after the original war has ended. The result can be small but fierce "Spore Wars" as the enemy, sometimes with the assistance of their former antagonists, work to wipe out the presence of rogue Autofabricator Swarms.
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Re: Ground Warfare in the 101st century NY

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Transhuman Infantry Structure

Transhumans have varying levels of enhancements and abilities that effect that combat prowess. As a result, most Transhuman societies divide their infantry along these lines, although this does not prevent mixed units from forming on an ad hoc basis during actual hostilities.

Militia - Baseline and Nearbaselines that take up arms and military training on a part time basis or as and when needed. Due to a sense of civic duty held by most Transhumans and also simply through sheer numbers this is the most common form of infantry unit in Transhuman civilisation, after purely robotic infantry.

Soldiers - Baselines and Nearbaselines who take up soldiering as a profession.

Warriors - Transhumans born into a martial society. They frequently have a large variety of combat-specific enhancements if they are not designed from the ground upwards for a life of conflict. Most sapient Mechanoid infantry is of this type.

Supersoldiers - Highly enhanced and powerful Transhumans, formed into special units that are directed to where they are most needed. More powerful than Warriors, but not as strong as Avatars.

Avatars - These powerful individuals are frequently called upon to aid in a conflict. Although tiny in number, the presence of even a single Avatar in a conflict can tip the balance in the favour of the Transhuman side.

Artificial Intelligences - Although usually serving the roles of HQ and coordinators, AIs are not above directly participating in combat when the situation calls for it, although due to their often massive size they are usually limited to personally taking part in space battles as opposed to surface battles.
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