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Description
(Because dA loves sprites. For )

A paradigm that E Pluribus Axioma's military contractors have found difficult to get rid of is aerial warfare, as most of them started as aerospace manufacturers that branched out into land systems following large cash injections from EPA without giving them the time to build a more conventional scientific base with hired professionals. This means that, like several other EPA tanks, the CCZ-99 main battle tank is envisioned as more of a land gunship than the more conventional view on armor of other factions. This was only compounded by EPA's extreme weight restrictions and airmechanized doctrine, leading to the use of many techiques from aircraft designing.

Crew:
Both its crewmembers, designated pilot and co-pilot have the same level of control over both the tank's movement controls and its weapons systems. While the tank enters combat with the pilot as its designated gunner-commander, both crewmembers can swap out their functions at any point with simple digital commands, allowing for both sets of eyes to react quickly to sudden threats by either painting or shooting. Driving is largely relegated to an "autopilot" cued by the crewmembers' heads-up-displays and maneuvering around obstacles with cameras and radars linked to local topological and combat reconaissance surveys to notify the pilots of advantageous positions in their surroundings. At any point this autopilot can be overriden by the crew by simply manipulating the controls or expanded to the fire control system to allow for remote operation.

Sensors:
This, however, results in a massive information flow for both crewmembers, which is facilitated by the use of digital transparency to allow the crewmembers to see out in all directions at once through a redundant system of retinal screens, heads-up-displays and holographic emitters. Meant to enable the undermanned tank to have the same reactivity and awareness in urban scenarios as more conventional vehicles, this control system draws its sensor data from a large planar phased array LIDAR-Radar hybrid grafted onto the face and sides of the turret with several thousand modules in addition to passive infrared cameras. This gives both crewmembers a constant artificial color TV channel and a radar channel for most of the tank's front and sides even through smokescreens and IR decoys, the construction of this device means that sniper shots or shrapnel will destroy very few modules, leaving the tank's sensors operative and ready for retaliation. It however also means that accumulation of dust, dirt, mud or snow on the highly-sloped turret face will obstruct the sensors, which was resolved by crude if effective field modifications adding large wipers and cleaning sprays based on the automotive industry. In addition to the large frontal radar, swiveling 260° coverage is also provided by the APS radar on the turret bustle. The APS is highly integrated with the main radar/LIDAR sensor, as it provides finer detection than its own smaller radar while providing additional laser and muzzle flash-detection with real-time spectrum analysis as well as analysis of the IR signature of muzzle blasts, allowing the system to immediately know if the shot detected was aimed at itself to cue the APS. Both the LIDAR and radar can simultaneously set components to either passive, communicating or active mode, giving the tank's fire and control systems the track-while scan, multiple target tracking, direct target sharing capabilities as well as the ability to simultaneously track and analyze up to 250 simultaneous contacts from infantry to low-flying aircraft, traits only commonly seen in high-level fighter craft.

An additional large set of optics atop the turret provide a wide-field 200x zoom infrared, UV or TV channel automatically cued by either crewmember or target-recognition software and motion detectors in automatic search mode.

The largest sensor of the tank is a highly sensitive magnetic anomaly detector found on the upper hull and turret roof, arranged along the vertical plates of the whipple shields (see armor) to form a fractal antenna. This allows the tank to detect vehicles, aircraft and (at much shorter ranges) infantry on the other sides of certain obstacles such as hills and buildings or mines hidden under the ground. While much lower-resolution than the main sensor, the so-called "anti ambush system" (AAS) allows the tank to engage targets without having a line-of sight, giving it a tremendous advantage against low-flying gunships behind cover whose electrogravitic, ion or plasma engines have highly visible magnetic signatures; partly reversing the advantage such craft have historically had over tanks. At short range the system is sensitive enough to detect, if unobstructed by interference, the nervous systems of living beings and electronic activity from computers or smart mines.

The enormous information flow from the sensors and external datalinks requires heavy usage of psychedelic nootropic drugs by the crew during combat operations to better interface with the system and one another. These are normally ingested orally ten minutes before operations, but for ambushes and sudden deployments intravenous "combat shots" are at the crew's disposition.

Armor:
The shape of the tank is mainly dictated by its relative lack of armor, making it rely on cover and extreme low hull-down positions to deflect most incoming fire in open engagements. The whole front of the hull is sloped backwards, tilting the turret ring in respect to the floor. The unconventional shape, aided by the lack of a driver's station in the hull, give the tank's feeble integral armor a high degree of sloping (useful against hypervelocity projectiles that do not normalise) and, more importantly, an extreme gun depression angle of -17°, allowing the tank to fire from hilltops and defilades while leaving the crew and every single vital system unexposed. The lower turret plate presents a reversed slope to allow the lidar/radar gunsight to keep functioning when in turret-down position where the upper plate is almost flat and unable to see to the front of the tank.

To fit in large numbers inside EPA's transport aircraft weight had been massivly restricted to under 40 tons, most of which was already taken by the tank's weaponry, engines and electronics. The small crew further reduced the weight but the tank remained too light to fit any armor beyond a thick layer of hollow superalloy whipple shields encased in ballistic nanofiber and pointed to protect the front of the tank, giving it an effective protection little above (and sometimes below) the level of concurrent IFVs. While effective against EFP, autocannon fire and giving a modicum of protection against lasers and medium caliber hypervelocity shells that would vaporize against the thin sheets of armor and diffused by the highly-sloped spaced armor, slower shells, high-explosive rounds and large caliber railguns would punch straight through.

The poor structural armor resulting from the weight restriction did not stop a workaround from being developped. Taking advantage of the plentiful space between the whipple shield plates, several mixtures were developped made from powderized diamond, graphite and a shear-thickening ballistic gel of varying densities. These mixtures could be poured into the tank's armor through dedicated openings, significantly increasing its protection against enemy fire and simply be pumped out of the tank (or even drained with removable caps on the bottom of the tank) at any moment. Tanks could be then armored with different mixtures depending on where they were deployed, with added protection against a variety of weapons; all while remaining light enough to be airmobile when no mixture was added. This simple solution was later developped into a full internal pumping systems, allowing tanks to load or unload mixture by themselves from external jettisonable canisters, ressuply vehicles or other tanks and even pump congealing agents into ruptured sections of armor to prevent the armor from dripping out.

Protection:
Above its armor, however, the tank relies mainly on its active protection system which acts as an extension of the large integrated sensors all over the tank, equipped with cross-checking protocols to discard enemy countermeasures and jamming. The system is split in two, with a low-level airbursting grenade launcher located in a small turret on the turret. This weapon is normally used as a commander's gun to fire at infantry and can be slaved to either crewmember, but when an incoming projectile is detected this control is overriden as the APS takes over the 25mm gun. While normally electrically-operated, when the APS is activated the turret switches to a pneumatic traverse mode drawing from compressed air tanks that can bring the gun to bear in a fraction of a second against incoming missiles, low-velocity shells and rockets.

The heavier component of the composite APS system consists of large launcher tubes to the sides of the tank's turret and hull, loaded with quick-reaction countermeasure missiles to intercept both top- and direct-attack missiles as well as railgun shots with enough energy to completely neutralize them. Mounted externally on disposable pods and cold-fired, these beam-riding missiles are guided wither wired or wirelessly by the tank's own radar. Like the armor underneath them, these missiles largely conentrate on defending a fairly narrow arc in the fronts of both hull and turret.

Description
(Because dA loves sprites. For )

A paradigm that E Pluribus Axioma's military contractors have found difficult to get rid of is aerial warfare, as most of them started as aerospace manufacturers that branched out into land systems following large cash injections from EPA without giving them the time to build a more conventional scientific base with hired professionals. This means that, like several other EPA tanks, the CCZ-99 main battle tank is envisioned as more of a land gunship than the more conventional view on armor of other factions. This was only compounded by EPA's extreme weight restrictions and airmechanized doctrine, leading to the use of many techiques from aircraft designing.

Crew:
Both its crewmembers, designated pilot and co-pilot have the same level of control over both the tank's movement controls and its weapons systems. While the tank enters combat with the pilot as its designated gunner-commander, both crewmembers can swap out their functions at any point with simple digital commands, allowing for both sets of eyes to react quickly to sudden threats by either painting or shooting. Driving is largely relegated to an "autopilot" cued by the crewmembers' heads-up-displays and maneuvering around obstacles with cameras and radars linked to local topological and combat reconaissance surveys to notify the pilots of advantageous positions in their surroundings. At any point this autopilot can be overriden by the crew by simply manipulating the controls or expanded to the fire control system to allow for remote operation.

Sensors:
This, however, results in a massive information flow for both crewmembers, which is facilitated by the use of digital transparency to allow the crewmembers to see out in all directions at once through a redundant system of retinal screens, heads-up-displays and holographic emitters. Meant to enable the undermanned tank to have the same reactivity and awareness in urban scenarios as more conventional vehicles, this control system draws its sensor data from a large planar phased array LIDAR-Radar hybrid grafted onto the face and sides of the turret with several thousand modules in addition to passive infrared cameras. This gives both crewmembers a constant artificial color TV channel and a radar channel for most of the tank's front and sides even through smokescreens and IR decoys, the construction of this device means that sniper shots or shrapnel will destroy very few modules, leaving the tank's sensors operative and ready for retaliation. It however also means that accumulation of dust, dirt, mud or snow on the highly-sloped turret face will obstruct the sensors, which was resolved by crude if effective field modifications adding large wipers and cleaning sprays based on the automotive industry. In addition to the large frontal radar, swiveling 260° coverage is also provided by the APS radar on the turret bustle. The APS is highly integrated with the main radar/LIDAR sensor, as it provides finer detection than its own smaller radar while providing additional laser and muzzle flash-detection with real-time spectrum analysis as well as analysis of the IR signature of muzzle blasts, allowing the system to immediately know if the shot detected was aimed at itself to cue the APS. Both the LIDAR and radar can simultaneously set components to either passive, communicating or active mode, giving the tank's fire and control systems the track-while scan, multiple target tracking, direct target sharing capabilities as well as the ability to simultaneously track and analyze up to 250 simultaneous contacts from infantry to low-flying aircraft, traits only commonly seen in high-level fighter craft.

An additional large set of optics atop the turret provide a wide-field 200x zoom infrared, UV or TV channel automatically cued by either crewmember or target-recognition software and motion detectors in automatic search mode.

The largest sensor of the tank is a highly sensitive magnetic anomaly detector found on the upper hull and turret roof, arranged along the vertical plates of the whipple shields (see armor) to form a fractal antenna. This allows the tank to detect vehicles, aircraft and (at much shorter ranges) infantry on the other sides of certain obstacles such as hills and buildings or mines hidden under the ground. While much lower-resolution than the main sensor, the so-called "anti ambush system" (AAS) allows the tank to engage targets without having a line-of sight, giving it a tremendous advantage against low-flying gunships behind cover whose electrogravitic, ion or plasma engines have highly visible magnetic signatures; partly reversing the advantage such craft have historically had over tanks. At short range the system is sensitive enough to detect, if unobstructed by interference, the nervous systems of living beings and electronic activity from computers or smart mines.

The enormous information flow from the sensors and external datalinks requires heavy usage of psychedelic nootropic drugs by the crew during combat operations to better interface with the system and one another. These are normally ingested orally ten minutes before operations, but for ambushes and sudden deployments intravenous "combat shots" are at the crew's disposition.

Armor:
The shape of the tank is mainly dictated by its relative lack of armor, making it rely on cover and extreme low hull-down positions to deflect most incoming fire in open engagements. The whole front of the hull is sloped backwards, tilting the turret ring in respect to the floor. The unconventional shape, aided by the lack of a driver's station in the hull, give the tank's feeble integral armor a high degree of sloping (useful against hypervelocity projectiles that do not normalise) and, more importantly, an extreme gun depression angle of -17°, allowing the tank to fire from hilltops and defilades while leaving the crew and every single vital system unexposed. The lower turret plate presents a reversed slope to allow the lidar/radar gunsight to keep functioning when in turret-down position where the upper plate is almost flat and unable to see to the front of the tank.

To fit in large numbers inside EPA's transport aircraft weight had been massivly restricted to under 40 tons, most of which was already taken by the tank's weaponry, engines and electronics. The small crew further reduced the weight but the tank remained too light to fit any armor beyond a thick layer of hollow superalloy whipple shields encased in ballistic nanofiber and pointed to protect the front of the tank, giving it an effective protection little above (and sometimes below) the level of concurrent IFVs. While effective against EFP, autocannon fire and giving a modicum of protection against lasers and medium caliber hypervelocity shells that would vaporize against the thin sheets of armor and diffused by the highly-sloped spaced armor, slower shells, high-explosive rounds and large caliber railguns would punch straight through.

The poor structural armor resulting from the weight restriction did not stop a workaround from being developped. Taking advantage of the plentiful space between the whipple shield plates, several mixtures were developped made from powderized diamond, graphite and a shear-thickening ballistic gel of varying densities. These mixtures could be poured into the tank's armor through dedicated openings, significantly increasing its protection against enemy fire and simply be pumped out of the tank (or even drained with removable caps on the bottom of the tank) at any moment. Tanks could be then armored with different mixtures depending on where they were deployed, with added protection against a variety of weapons; all while remaining light enough to be airmobile when no mixture was added. This simple solution was later developped into a full internal pumping systems, allowing tanks to load or unload mixture by themselves from external jettisonable canisters, ressuply vehicles or other tanks and even pump congealing agents into ruptured sections of armor to prevent the armor from dripping out.

Protection:
Above its armor, however, the tank relies mainly on its active protection system which acts as an extension of the large integrated sensors all over the tank, equipped with cross-checking protocols to discard enemy countermeasures and jamming. The system is split in two, with a low-level airbursting grenade launcher located in a small turret on the turret. This weapon is normally used as a commander's gun to fire at infantry and can be slaved to either crewmember, but when an incoming projectile is detected this control is overriden as the APS takes over the 25mm gun. While normally electrically-operated, when the APS is activated the turret switches to a pneumatic traverse mode drawing from compressed air tanks that can bring the gun to bear in a fraction of a second against incoming missiles, low-velocity shells and rockets.

The heavier component of the composite APS system consists of large launcher tubes to the sides of the tank's turret and hull, loaded with quick-reaction countermeasure missiles to intercept both top- and direct-attack missiles as well as railgun shots with enough energy to completely neutralize them. Mounted externally on disposable pods and cold-fired, these beam-riding missiles are guided wither wired or wirelessly by the tank's own radar. Like the armor underneath them, these missiles largely conentrate on defending a fairly narrow arc in the fronts of both hull and turret.