To kill or to be killed. To what extent is that statement true? It all depends on the situation, but most would do anything to keep Death's scythe away from their necks. By the time you realize Death's blade is swinging towards you, it's already too...
That's what moving was. The twin 24-cylinder marine diesel engines provide 16,800 horsepower, but when you weigh as much as a Ratte, that doesn't translate to anything. The initial design was expected to move at 40 km/h, or 25 mph.
But that's a lie.
It felt as if he was moving a fifth of that speed, as even though he had been travelling for the past few days, it was only now that the ocean had completely disappeared from view. And he soon learned what his new, greatest enemy would be.
A hill. With a 30 degree incline.
It took him literal hours to get over that bump. His engine was making noises he didn't know were possible, and it was a miracle that the drive shaft didn't just cease to function.
What was also a miracle was the fact that the hill didn't straight up crumble under his sheer weight. The bedrock layer must have been pretty close to the surface. He could have sworn that during the climb, he could see the sun move in the sky, bit by little bit.
The road (or lack of one) looked long and hard, but he would reach the end of it. Eventually. If there was even an end to it. His engine revved for the god-who-knows how many times today, a clear sign of a sigh.
Sometimes he wished that he didn't grow 3 extra eyes.
An explanation? Yeah, that's probably needed.
After the angel had left him and he was on his way, he really wanted to know what his new turret looked like with a naval gun 100 mm bigger in diameter. In short, he found out that since his quad flak 38 turrets were open topped and had no roof, he could see directly above him.
The flaks themselves have 100 degrees of elevation, but the open-top nature of each turret essentially gave him a separate view of the sky, which was how he was able to painstakingly watch the sun move.
While he was doing that, he remembered that most tanks had a viewport that the commander position of the tank could look out of without opening the hatch of said tank and get shot.
He found out that the Ratte had 2 viewports, each on top of the main turret and at opposite sides. These viewports could not see each other as they were located at the side slopes of the turret, meaning that the top of the turret was blocking their LOS.
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They could also see 360 degrees, and while they were located at different places, their FOV essentially meant that they worked together as one eye; kinda like how humans have 2 eyes but they don't see double of everything.
However, this "eye" was a bit different from a human's, as it meant that he could look forwards, backwards, and to the side at the same time, and if an object approached at a certain angle, that object could show up on one viewport but not the other.
