Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Hunter-Killer

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The Hunter-Killer is the primary anti-infantry tank of SKYNET. Planned to be voiced by

Tactical analysis

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History
"I'll pick the flesh from your bones!"

-Hunter-Killer Tank, displaying its sadistic tendencies

Early on, SKYNET was convinced that with huge numbers of robots, any enemy could fall. In a way, SKYNET is correct, but there is one facet they could not understand. While pulling down an enemy was easy enough, SKYNET soon learned of a curious human emotion that could win battles alone, called "fear", which the closest analogy that the A.I.s felt was an extremely negative version of the prediction that one's designs would be rejected. When searching through their cache of poetry failed (since the Protectorate rarely wrote on the subject), several search bots were attached to various human transmissions to learn more. Soon, they hit a breakthrough; in (Brazil), army ants were on the march, causing much fear in the region. SKYNET sent a number of observer nanites to observe the phenomena. While they learned a great deal, something completely unexpected happened.

The army ants marched on a plantation, in patterns whose pure geometry compared to humans pleased the A.I.s. Surely, humans would fall to these numbers. But then the humans simply pulled out tanks of insecticide and calmly sprayed the swarm. They weren't afraid of these numbers! As the entire swarm died while the humans joked and laughed, SKYNET's earlier assumptions were invalidated. The clear conclusion was that humans do not fear numbers alone. Noticing that the humans feared the jungle animals fleeing the swarm more, SKYNET set upon forging a large, terrifying unit to supplement their great numbers.

The A.I.s were set upon the problem. The first attempt, a large graphic on the sides of tanks showing a growling bear and a skeleton, did not work well nearly as much as the A.I.s hoped. However, they then turned to combine fear with aesthetics, and at the exact nanosecond they came up with a design, the infernal machines of the Protectorate started cranking them out. Large, imposing, and well-armed, this Hunter-Killer was everything the Core Mind Collective wanted it to be. It was intentionally designed to vaguely look like a humanoid, but clearly robotic structures to put any person at ill ease. Two heavy machine guns could level entire columns of soldiers with ease.

Since fear was understood now, "younger" A.I.s were re-coded and implanted with this idea, only being returned to their former state after their task. They were given the sole task of writing scripts that were understood to provoke fear in humanoids, all of which were uploaded into each Hunter-Killer. This was considered necessary, as it was computed that they would cause fear better than some hexagrammatical equation. Indeed, Hunter-Killers often do everything to demoralize their enemy, from attacking non-combatants despite losing the tactical disadvantage, to screaming out obscenities and slurs in a synthesized voice. The full effect against humanoids is unknown, but what is known is that Hunter-Killers are deadly against infantry, and in a way anything that stands against them.