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During the final stages of the
Proxima Wars, the allied forces suffered greater losses than at any other
time during the conflict. In space there had been room for maneuver, but on
the surface of Proxima II, the last enemy stronghold, this was not the case.
In the bitter, localized ground fighting which characterized this stage of
the war our forces had to contend with a number of defensive weapons
previously unknown, one of the most fearsome being the Tarantula.
Virtually undetectable in their screened silos, these sinister scarlet
painted craft would wait until overrun by our advancing ground forces before
blowing off their camouflages covers and erupting from beneath the surface
with the shriek of jetstream. They were heavily armored and carried the most
frightening and indiscriminate weapon of the War. Housed in each of the legs
were multiple sub-atomic particle oscillators (SAPO) able to project an
omni-directional field which disrupted the relationships between atomic
components.
All matter within an effective range of 500-600 meters was instantly and
entirely dispersed, leaving a circle of boiling gases, and occasionally
particle collision would set of a chain of nuclear reactions which not only
devastated a wider area but destroyed the Tarantula as well.
It was a crude but effective instrument of war which prolonged and almost
reversed the course of events, but it had a fundamental weakness in that the
enormous power consumption of the oscillators would completely drain the
reserves, leaving the craft immobile and virtually defenseless.
Hideous losses in men and equipment were sustained before our Forward
Tactical Research Units succeeded in finding a counter to the Tarantula's
threat. They devised a method of projecting electronic 'ghost' images
simulating attacking ground forces which would trigger the Tarantula's
receptors. Once the craft had ejected from its lair and was trying to
identify its target it was vulnerable and could be dealt with by
conventional medium-range weapons.
As the War drew to a close, the Tarantula appeared in a variety of forms,
although the basic construction remained unchanged. Whereas the early model
was fully armored and carried a crew, later models became progressively less
sophisticated and eventually were constructed as little more than an
unarmored frame containing the control module, propulsion units and the
oscillators. These models were unmanned and were guided by automatic systems
activated either externally or independently through the machines' own
sensors. Many casualties were reported for some time after hostilities were
over as a result of the accidental triggering of forgotten machines. |
