NationStates Jolt Archive


Conquest Incorporated Tech Research Thread

Conquest Inc
07-02-2006, 22:59
OOC: Generally, the existance of a unit is probably not secret if it's posted here, but its capabilities are until such time as it has actually blown anyone up or has itself been blown up and had its wreckage poked and prodded. Contact me if you have any questions. This is largely intended for self-reference, by the by.

When one got as wealthy as Leon Rheinhardt was, one's patience rapidly atrophied from the circumstances that wealth brought. The executive culture of Conquest Incorporated operated very much in the here-and-now, and was generally accustomed to instant gratification.

This was generally why Leon Rheinhardt, Cheif Executive Officer of Rhinemetall Enterprises, and thus a senior partner in the financial oligarchy of Conquest Inc, did not particularly enjoy spending time on R&D. Later, innovative research and ingenious development would mean a more efficient corporate security apparatus, more profitable products and more entertaining explosions - but now all it meant was seemingly endless hours spent trying to remain awake during meetings with the product developers, who seemed entirely unaware that those meetings served some sort of purpose.

Also, today, Leon had a headache. Which helped no one.

He glanced at his heavy, old-fashioned wristwatch and sighed loudly. "Stop." The engineer that had been interrupted looked up from his notes, apparently surprised that there were other people in the room. Judging by his perplexity, he might even have been taken aback by the realization that other people still were at all. "Thank you for the exhaustive details which you were providing, but not one of the people in this room has time to waste, including you. The salient points, if you would."

"Right, sir. I'm sorry sir. I didn't realize I was -" the engineer, an Alexander Bauchen, swallowed. "Yes, sir." he repeated. "As you are well aware, the office of the Director handed down a production directive for an armored unit for service with the CICSS. The Kommandant Medium Armor unit was the eventual response to that directive after exhaustive research testing... which..." his voice faded "I had been explaining..." He cleared his throat and regrouped. "Ah, so yes. The Kommandant, which is fully automated, mounts a clutch-chamber, one-hundred and thirty millimeter main gun capable of firing several ammunition types, including High Explosive Anti-Tank, High Explosive Shaped Head, High Explosive and Sabot rounds. Additionally, it mounts a twenty millimeter cannon for use against light vehicles and infantry." He paused to tap a command into the relevant keypad and the specifications of the aforementioned weapon systems sprung into being over the briefing room table.

The engineer rifled through his notes and resumed. "The big thing we're happy about, though, is the chassis." Another tap, another display, this one of the unit as a whole. "As the CICSS is most likely going to continue to operate exclusively in urban settings, maneuverability and compact size were more important design priorities than top speed. We feel we have adequately addressed both of those priorities with our innovative chassis." Bauchen's proud smile belied a certain shrewd understatement in the last thought. "Independently aligned treads enable the Kommandant to accelerate rapidly in most any direction, as well as strafe slower or stationary targets. Rapid acceleration, combined with the gas grenade launcher and the hardened composite armor, is likely to decrease attrition from ambushes as well - a frequent factor of urban combat.

"Um..." he flipped through his hardcopy notes one last time. "That's about it, I think. Nothing now but the video footage of the combat trials. This says..." he peered at a dense paragraph "... that this was an assault on a Marxist enclave in the abandoned subways. Enjoy."