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Description
Artist's Note:
This another 'blocked' art, it sat ont he back burner since July as I could not figure how best to articulate the largest Self-Propelled Gun the SSC had other then it was produced under project Grand Slam. Here is the Technical read out information, I tried to keep it brief but I hope it answers most casual questions.
===========================================

Design notes
The Gabion form note weighs 80 tons before additional armor is added which raises it's base weight to 96 tons. its top speed is 40.5 miles per hour on paved or otherwise prepared roads. It should also be said that the Gabion is actually the lead vehicle in a train of up to ten vehicles. Since it is the gun carrier, and has the best communications equipment it typically has to coordinate this land train and as a result operates to the rear of the second line somewhere.

Capabilities
The Gabion is named after the defencive construct for its role in the defensive positions employed by the SSC. Unlike other self propelled guns, the Gabion operates towards the third or rear most line yet has a reach able to be felt far to the rear of the enemy line. Typically a platoon of Gabion vehicles (4) will station somewhere behind the line and await firing orders, or will counter-battery any enemy artillery or ship based activity. The Gabion is powered by a Kallon fusion power plant giving it an endurance only limited by mechanical maintenance of the motive components and the crew. Like any Self-propelled gun of it’s size (80 tons) the gabion is rather slow moving just slightly slower then the Ontos Mark V from which it borrows a primary chassis and general hull layout. The lack of speed is not considered a big problem given the range of the primary armament and the protection often arrayed in the positions it is often deployed.

The primary weapon system of the Gabion is its V/900-M legacy weapon which is often mistaken for a big field gun or some kind of standard cannon. The gun is of the Legacy weapon series and in truth is a long-barreled mortar with rifling to allow for emergency semi-direct fire use. The weapon itself is a behemoth amongst land weapons as it weights 40 tons alone which means it comprises half the entire vehicle weight. The gun is so large in fact that the Gabion has no onboard ammunition which forces it to rely on it’s support vehicles to supply munitions. The gun itself is somewhat insensitive and will fire any ferrous-conductive material as long as the total mass in the innards of the breech are about two tons. One crew discovered this in a moment of tactical duress as they were cut off from supply lines. The Gabion crew pressured by advancing soviet infantry raided a supply depot and loaded two tons of large concrete nails each about twelve inches long a piece. Needless to say the gun fired, but ruined the rifling, the soviets on the other hand decided they did not what to bother with the objective position upon which the artillery sat, and what was left of their infantry fled the area. Needless to say encounters of this sort are somewhat rare, but the few that occur do often wind up in DZ Inc’s advertising materials.

The remainder of the armament on the Gabion includes a pair of V-A/18 type Anti-air/ Anti-Personnel Legacy rifles and sixteen Devil’s Tooth Anti-personnel pods.
While the rifles are of standard issue on most SSC vehicles the anti-personnel pods deserve some special mentions. These pods are mounted in groups of four spread across the sides of the vehicle in four individual locations. Each pod is fired individually and deploys what the crews jokingly call either a ‘Homicide Drone’ or a ‘Murder Drone’ This simple device is simply a self-firing capsule that once launched from it’s pod rises to a height of up to five meters and auto detonates spraying an area about the vehicle with anti-personnel flechettes. The effect is utterly murderous against unarmored targets but the flechettes are reinforced so even powered armor might face some difficulty. The range of effect is relatively short so the system acts as a final defense against infantry. The system it self that fires these weapons has its own power supply targeting and automation and is hardened versus EMP, it also uses a unique form of script and code making hacking incredibly difficult as the language used isn’t human. Some ethical issues have come up with using drones in such a self-destructive manner as some in the scientific community debate if the drones themselves are in fact sentient.
On defense however the Gabion’s protection is a bit thin. However the heavily reinforced framework, allows for the factory standard of attaching an extra sixteen tons of armor to the outer hull of the vehicle. This added armor effectively gives it respectable protection by armored vehicle standards which means most casual hits or near misses will likely do little damage. It should be noted that the Gabion and the Ontos use the same type of armor which in part explains the lack of penetration against the gabion’s armor.

Description
Artist's Note:
This another 'blocked' art, it sat ont he back burner since July as I could not figure how best to articulate the largest Self-Propelled Gun the SSC had other then it was produced under project Grand Slam. Here is the Technical read out information, I tried to keep it brief but I hope it answers most casual questions.
===========================================

Design notes
The Gabion form note weighs 80 tons before additional armor is added which raises it's base weight to 96 tons. its top speed is 40.5 miles per hour on paved or otherwise prepared roads. It should also be said that the Gabion is actually the lead vehicle in a train of up to ten vehicles. Since it is the gun carrier, and has the best communications equipment it typically has to coordinate this land train and as a result operates to the rear of the second line somewhere.

Capabilities
The Gabion is named after the defencive construct for its role in the defensive positions employed by the SSC. Unlike other self propelled guns, the Gabion operates towards the third or rear most line yet has a reach able to be felt far to the rear of the enemy line. Typically a platoon of Gabion vehicles (4) will station somewhere behind the line and await firing orders, or will counter-battery any enemy artillery or ship based activity. The Gabion is powered by a Kallon fusion power plant giving it an endurance only limited by mechanical maintenance of the motive components and the crew. Like any Self-propelled gun of it’s size (80 tons) the gabion is rather slow moving just slightly slower then the Ontos Mark V from which it borrows a primary chassis and general hull layout. The lack of speed is not considered a big problem given the range of the primary armament and the protection often arrayed in the positions it is often deployed.

The primary weapon system of the Gabion is its V/900-M legacy weapon which is often mistaken for a big field gun or some kind of standard cannon. The gun is of the Legacy weapon series and in truth is a long-barreled mortar with rifling to allow for emergency semi-direct fire use. The weapon itself is a behemoth amongst land weapons as it weights 40 tons alone which means it comprises half the entire vehicle weight. The gun is so large in fact that the Gabion has no onboard ammunition which forces it to rely on it’s support vehicles to supply munitions. The gun itself is somewhat insensitive and will fire any ferrous-conductive material as long as the total mass in the innards of the breech are about two tons. One crew discovered this in a moment of tactical duress as they were cut off from supply lines. The Gabion crew pressured by advancing soviet infantry raided a supply depot and loaded two tons of large concrete nails each about twelve inches long a piece. Needless to say the gun fired, but ruined the rifling, the soviets on the other hand decided they did not what to bother with the objective position upon which the artillery sat, and what was left of their infantry fled the area. Needless to say encounters of this sort are somewhat rare, but the few that occur do often wind up in DZ Inc’s advertising materials.

The remainder of the armament on the Gabion includes a pair of V-A/18 type Anti-air/ Anti-Personnel Legacy rifles and sixteen Devil’s Tooth Anti-personnel pods.
While the rifles are of standard issue on most SSC vehicles the anti-personnel pods deserve some special mentions. These pods are mounted in groups of four spread across the sides of the vehicle in four individual locations. Each pod is fired individually and deploys what the crews jokingly call either a ‘Homicide Drone’ or a ‘Murder Drone’ This simple device is simply a self-firing capsule that once launched from it’s pod rises to a height of up to five meters and auto detonates spraying an area about the vehicle with anti-personnel flechettes. The effect is utterly murderous against unarmored targets but the flechettes are reinforced so even powered armor might face some difficulty. The range of effect is relatively short so the system acts as a final defense against infantry. The system it self that fires these weapons has its own power supply targeting and automation and is hardened versus EMP, it also uses a unique form of script and code making hacking incredibly difficult as the language used isn’t human. Some ethical issues have come up with using drones in such a self-destructive manner as some in the scientific community debate if the drones themselves are in fact sentient.
On defense however the Gabion’s protection is a bit thin. However the heavily reinforced framework, allows for the factory standard of attaching an extra sixteen tons of armor to the outer hull of the vehicle. This added armor effectively gives it respectable protection by armored vehicle standards which means most casual hits or near misses will likely do little damage. It should be noted that the Gabion and the Ontos use the same type of armor which in part explains the lack of penetration against the gabion’s armor.