Kalran: Tales of the four nations/Barbarossa gauss howitzer

Tactical Analysis

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History
Despite the obvious strengths of Gauss-based weaponry - their range, penetrating power, and removal of ammunition explosion risk, to name but a few examples, Gauss don't actually pack enough of a punch to fell individual targets efficiently - all that energy in the Gauss needle goes into penetration instead of impact. Unless a Gauss round could shoot through multiple targets, all that extra energy was wasted.

Project Gustav was conceived to attempt to rectify this problem, gathering some of the Volksgards best brains in the field of Gauss weaponry. In order to change the Gauss projectile's emphasis on penetration to blunt impact force, the shape of the projectile needed to be changed from a needle to a much blunter, wider projectile. And a blunter and wider projectile translated to a less aerodynamic and thus slower projectile. Which meant more energy needed to accelerate it to higher velocities. But even with all that power, it sometimes still took multiple rounds to fully demolish a structure- and the recoil from firing those rounds more often than none damaged the Gauss mounting. A recoil management system powerful enough to mitigate the effects would also use too much, and easy to break, materials. Simply put, it was inefficient.

Then a new member joined the Gustav team - one who had previously been working on a mass driver. The answer to Project Gustav's dilemma was so simple - fire the projectile high up into the atmosphere with a Gauss, then let it fall back to the surface and use gravitational force to slam itself into a target. This would ensure maximum damage since it was hitting the usually weaker top part of the target instead of the front or side, and would transfer a significantly larger proportion of its kinetic energy to the target and surroundings - plus, the Gauss could be fired directly upwards while recoiling downwards, allowing the chassis to absorb the recoil energy and transfer it to the ground. The Gustav team immediately went back to work. And one month later, Project Gustav produced the first Atmospheric Reentry Kinetic Impact Shell (A.R.K.I.S).

The ARKIS would be launched at an extremely high inclination from a specially modified Gauss howitzer with a much wider bore than normal. After being fired high up into the atmosphere, the round would begin to fall back to the surface, its position kept tracked of by the earth magic built into each round. The ARKIS would make course corrections with its magic on the way down, using a void marker to designate its strike zone. And the kinetic energy it accrued, combined with void and earthquake spells built into the rounds, means that the surrounding area upon impact are wrecked with a cataclysmic earthquake while a powerful vortex pulls in and crushes anything not bolted to the ground, before exploding and expelling the materials into high speed shrapnel.

Unfortunately, after many, many, experiments they found it impossible to mount it on a vehicle, the recoil crushes the roof of vehicles while submarines will completely flip over and sink, and could only do so on a rooted platform, which must have a specifically made recoil system built underground. And having to constantly check it every time it fires, since a single malfunction could cause the entire facility and surrounding to be destroyed in a earthquake/vortex combo, meaning it takes a long time to arm and fire.