You’ve been hired for one last job, just when you thought there was nobody left in the galaxy willing to make you an offer. Of all the people whose message could appear in your inbox, it was your ex-flame’s. You don’t know the specifics. You don’t care about the details. All you know is, there’s money involved, and it’s money that you can’t afford to pass up. The kind of deal that could settle your debts for a lifetime. Not much use for tankers these days. The kind of destruction and mayhem a squadron of armour makes as it announces its arrival on the battlefield tends to draw attention where attention isn’t wanted. But somebody wants that kind of firepower, and they’re willing to pay for it. You’re about to find out why.
While the S-12 Heavy Tank was excellent at forcing mercenary and pirate foes out of entrenched positions, the vehicle that EOS would later dub the “Phalanx” had a difficult time keeping pace with other Sunean vehicles if the engagement was of a more mobile nature. Development of the S-12’s replacement thus began almost immediately after the first combat deployments of the former model. While speed and operational range were the primary considerations in the design of the S-13, Sunean engineers also strove to introduce other improvements to the new vehicle, the results of lessons learned in the field. The profile of the S-13 was streamlined considerably compared to the S-12, so that the S-13 would present less of a broad target to enemy gunnery. The new design was also simplified greatly for ease of manufacture, making the S-13 considerably cheaper and quicker to produce than its more complex predecessor. The final product has been lovingly dubbed the “Raptor” by its Sunean ground crews, who, like their namesake, often lay in wait for unsuspecting, lighter prey. The new Raptors have served as excellent supplements to lighter Sunean forces in the evolving battlegrounds of the starship wastelands.