This account by Silverius was originally posted to to Sergio's longstanding forum in GoKrida, told from the point of view of the people of Red Catastrophe, minor souls who think of major souls as gods. The narrative discusses the environment, culture, and government of this imagined planet, including stories and rules for games. Some of the details were inspired by events and discoveries in GoKrida, while others must have been inspired by Silverius' other interests. The GoKridan planet Red Catastrophe Earth, commonly known as Legendary Red Catastrophe, was named in honor of this tale.
The Landmacht and it's tanks
Red Catastrophe isn't exactly known for it's mighty walking beasts, we don't have legendary beasts like Mammoths to fight for us on the ground. Instead the Landmacht has turned to science to get an edge over attackers.
The Vincies have, over time, developed a number of so called tanks in various sizes and forms. What all tanks share is a good protection for those who are in it and the ability to move by wheels or by tracks.
The smallest tank is the Wasp. It's a three person tank where two soldiers propel the tank by treading in pedals and a gunman fires bolts from a turret. The turret can be rotated and has a crossbow inside with a semi-automatic loading and readying facility (pulling a handle loads an arrow and prepares the bow to fire). This tank has only a weak armor but is pretty darn fast and cheap, making it the tank of choice for patrolling and scouting.
Next comes the Hedgehog. The Hegdehog is basically a mobile wall with holes in it for the archers. When it arrives where it's supposed to be the sides of the tank open so that the tank looks like a hexagon from the front. The tank has a double floor allowing the archers to stand on the tank floor and not on the ground where their feet might be shot. The tank is pretty heavy with good armor which means the pedal propulsion won't work. Instead two big levers are used, each lever has two teams on each side pushing it down in turns.
The Cutter is one of our most complex and most dangerous tanks. It has two big sawblades mounted in front of it which can cut down the enemies legs. A popular strategy is to have cutters guard a pass, as the enemy is not able to get around the back of the cutters they have no choice but to retreat. To power the sawblades the cutter has a third lever. To defend itself the Cutter has a few holes for crossbowmen in the front.
The pinacle of Red Catastrophian warfare is the flamer. The flamer is basically a big Wasp that fires bolts that have flames bursting out of them on impact. As the flamer requires a big turret for it's big arrows it's mounted on the body of a Cutter.
The arrows of a flamer are about 1 decira in diameter and consist of two parts: the ignition and the payload. The nose is somewhat flexible and has a small stick with a chemical on it attached to it on the inside. About a centira from the nose stick a small cross is mounted inside the arrow, in the center of the cross is a circle with a second chemical on it. When the nose is pushed inwards by impact the two chemicals meet and a reaction developed in which a lot of heat is released. The heat in turn ignites the payload, usually finely grinded charcoal. When the charcoal ignites the pressure in the arrow goes up rapidly and causes some wax seals in the sides of the arrow to open. An explosion occurs and fire shoots out of the arrow.
The military advantage of the flamer lies in two elements: sound and fire. The sound and light of the explosion will distract the enemies troops and horses and the fire will wreak havoc wherever the arrow lands. As the bow in the Flamer is very strong we can, with good aiming and weather, hit an enemy camp from a kilora away. A few arrows in the tents and the enemy should be severly weakened.
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