Shot Cannon
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Echelon Group Company Intranet
Stabilization Team Discussion Boards
Summary: Employee dialogue regarding HE-V equipment doctrine, battlefield applicability.
Notice: Thread archived on <REDACTED> for training reference.
Thread: "Shot cannons? Why?" Posted: <REDACTED> - 14:22 GST
Farfetcher_00 [Branstetter, Vincent, #445736]
Question for the vets here. I just finished my evaluation runs in the Warden, and can’t help but wonder why SOP for the fixed-site teams is to mount a giant shotgun on a medium HE-V. For that much tonnage we could mount another railgun, PBW, launcher, whatever. Something useful!
The nominal effective on the Mark 3 Mod 3 against a point target is only 200 meters? Cueing system won’t even greenlight past 300. Why is my junior ass out here pushing a post with great-grandpap’s blunderbuss? In what universe does this make tactical sense? Who wrote this policy?
nomad_queen [Pease, Marlena, #984173]
@Farfetcher_00
I’d laugh if I could stop crying over it. I've been saying this since before the academy. The tail’s wagging the dog: Echelon has too many still in inventory and so there’s a policy to justify them. Write up those procedure manuals, chop chop!
Give me paired lasers on my Weaver any day. It’s a gunfight. Keep your distance and send the company’s regards. Shot cannon is a joke. Belongs in a museum right beside Ullman…
HATCHET_6 [Ullman, Rudiger, #472199]
@Farfetcher_00 @nomad_queen
Bend your ears, children. They’re SOP for a reason. You're thinking about HE-V combat at its basest. The classic showdown at long range on Martian hardpan. Railguns at dawn, from the horizon and may the best pilot win.
It doesn't always happen that way. It’s foolish to think otherwise, as odds are it won’t. Modern armored combat is in the ruins of old Earth, in industrial megaplexes, on orbital platforms. Even underground in the caves and caverns. Remember Prosperity..? I could tell you about an op when I needed the shot cannon. On Mars, near the Ophir Planum, before they built that shiny business spire. Opened up the pipe on some swarming infantry. Aftermath of that incident bout turned my hair white.
Farfetcher_00 [Branstetter, Vincent, #445736]
@HATCHET_6
Oh, so that’s why your hair’s white. Well, here we all thought you were just plain old, Ullman.
nomad_queen [Pease, Marlena, #984173]
HA!
HATCHET_6 [Ullman, Rudiger, #472199]
@Farfetcher_00
That I am. Cut the shit, I’m trying to teach you something. Answer me this: What happens when you're facing a no-holds-barred combined attack? I mean infantry with portable AT in every window, drones, hard ECM, and an HE-V barreling around the corner swinging a mace or demo saw? Let’s say, let’s just say, you’ve also got a pack of Kobolds out there stalking you. You’re fighting somewhere built-up with a hundred blind corners and twice as many ambush positions.
That’s rhetorical, that question. I know what will happen to you probbies. You’ll die.
nomad_queen [Pease, Marlena, #984173]
@HATCHET_6
Oh, please, old man! Again, fight with your legs. Positioning is everything, extend the distance when you WANT to, before you’re tangled up. Where have I heard that before? The situational awareness of a rock, some people.
Farfetcher_00 [Branstetter, Vincent, #445736]
@HATCHET_6
OK, I’m reading you. A close fight needs the right tool. So why isn’t it a buzzgun, or submunitions? Better range, or more utility, etc.
HATCHET_6 [Ullman, Rudiger, #472199]
@nomad_queen
Range collapses whether you want it to or not. A matter of when. The other guys get a vote on where the fight will take place.
@Farfetcher_00
Submunitions are not what you want for that kind of work. That’s a defensive system with some contingency offensive capability. Rotary cannon overlaps with but does not replace the shot cannon. Better range, blistering ROF, good for light targets or single fast ones. But you’ve still got to lay the gun on target and keep it there. Hard to do at bad breath distance. Shot cannon payload, anywhere from 20 to 55 individual projectiles get delivered right now, one trigger pull, in a beaten zone. Hard to miss.
That margin of error, and the ability to service multiple targets when everything else is against you is the x-factor you are failing to comprehend.
Farfetcher_00 [Branstetter, Vincent, #445736]
@HATCHET_6
I'm starting to get it. Makes sense for soft targets, at least. But it still doesn’t square up against a rig of similar size or bigger. I’ve seen the data, and the math isn’t mathing. The projectiles just don’t have the lethality. Penetrators or bomblets.
nomad_queen [Pease, Marlena, #984173]
@Farfetcher_00
It doesn't square because it doesn't work, dolt. You have to crack their shell, not pepper it. Non-starter, I’m telling you!
Boz [Bozwell, Jason, #339294]
@HATCHET_6
Question about warload. Avg shot cannon carries, what, 30 shells? That’s not much endurance, is it?
HATCHET_6 [Ullman, Rudiger, #472199]
@Boz
A fair question. It isn’t much if your benchmark is an autocannon or rotary cannon. But with a shot cannon, those 30 shells are actually 30 separate engagements, or if you prefer about 1,200 individual subcaliber darts. In practice, 30 shells is plenty for most missions. One round at a mine drone hard-stops it. One round into an infantry position eliminates the position, and by eliminate I mean AMF. See where I am going?
@nomad_queen @Farfetcher_00
What the academy doesn’t teach, and HE-V mfg. brochures don’t tell, is that one good hit from a beehive will strip actuators, break optics, and generally cause system-wide mayhem. Multiple darts striking close will absolutely degrade or defeat heavy armor. The psychological effect is legit, especially on the fast guys that bob and weave. They know they won’t be able to jink your fire.
Farfetcher_00 [Branstetter, Vincent, #445736]
@HATCHET_6
Alright then. Guess I’ve got to eat crow. Thanks, Ullman. Is the Mark 3 Mod 3 GtG, officially?
HATCHET_6 [Ullman, Rudiger, #472199]
@Farfetcher_00
Officially, it’s good to go. Unofficially, if you can spec-req or salvage a Sargmacher Ballistics Type 8, accept no substitutes. Bigger payload per shell, more reliable, and the switchable ammo feed is real nice if you are teching-up for close work. Don’t tell management I said that.
Farfetcher_00 [Branstetter, Vincent, #445736]
@HATCHET_6
The big bore! I like your style.
nomad_queen [Pease, Marlena, #984173]
Now he is pushing Weasel Bros. gear! Traitor! Are you on their payroll, Ullman!? WHOS YOUR HANDLER???
Red_right_hand [Natcher, William #276571]
Speaking from experience, here. This was before I made the stab teams. I was still in the security services, riding a Buck and doing counter insurgency in Australia for a time. A tough tour. Was lucky enough to lay hands on the Type 8. Had to drop some weight, but strapped it on on Hatchet’s advice. Believe it, lady, VisalCorp got that one exactly right. Anyway, got bumrushed one afternoon by ratwagons and some upgunned ultralight cargo lifters in a shipping hub. Bunches of em. I walked out with only cosmetic damage. Make of that what you will. In a massed attack, nothing compares. It was a quiet stint, after.
HATCHET_6 [Ullman, Rudiger, #472199]
@red_right_hand
Shot cannons change enemy behavior. When they know you're packing, they have to adjust their entire approach. No one feels gung-ho after seeing their buddies get blended by one.
Farfetcher_00 [Branstetter, Vincent, #445736]
@HATCHET_6 @red_right_hand
Thanks, again, gentlemen. I’m hitting the sims tomorrow and will report back for an AAR.
@nomad_queen
You’re coming with me.
HATCHET_6 [Ullman, Rudiger, #472199]
@Farfetcher_00
I wrote that SOP, by the way.
Illustration by Florian Mellies
