a background & history.
In January of 1894 a craft from another world crashed in the British Isles, attacking the surrounding countryside until suddenly & mysteriously ceasing to function. Aboard the craft were several alien creatures, the likes of which the British Government had never seen. The British government, not wanting to upset their subjects delicate natures, hired a writer of speculative fiction to help cover-up the incident.
Years later, in October of 1938, a second craft crashed in America. When the British government found out about the American government's cover up of the attack they contacted them and formed a group they called "the Trust". An exchange of information on the two alien craft was started. Oddly enough, while both craft bore a certain similarity in design the creatures on board were drastically different.
After the Second World War, it was discovered that the Russians had the remains of a crash from many years ago. the Trust added a third member to their small group. The three governments cooperated well until July 2nd, 1947 when another craft crashed in the United States. The USSR demanded to examine the wreckage, threatening all manner of reprisals if their demands were not met. The United States refused. Tensions mounted. Then, in September of 1952 yet another craft landed, this one near Los Angeles. This infuriated the USSR even more and the cold war took on new levels of combativeness. Despite this animosity, the cover-up continued.
It was several years later, after the discovery of DNA, that it was determined that all the aliens were in fact the same species, genetically altered by an unknown means. It was also found that their immune systems were unable to cope with the vast array of pollens in the Earth's atmosphere.
Realizing that the attacks over the years weren't some random fluke, but a series of systematic attacks against the Earth, the Trust brought in several other governments and made reparations to the USSR in an attempt to form a united front against these alien invaders.
By combining back-engineered technology from the alien spacecrafts with our own advancing technology, when the 5th attack came the Earth was ready. We could no longer rely on the Earth's native defenses, as the aliens had developed immunity to pollen & other attacks. Advances in projectile technology enabled us to penetrate their force shields, knocking their gravity-defying craft from the sky.
Analysis of the downed wreckage provided key technologies that were incorporated into the construction of the Leopard VII and other hover tanks. First was a very powerful energy generator that runs the crafts shields and anti-gravity device. The second was of a working anti-gravity generator.
After the aliens were driven off Earth it was determined that we would have to take the battle to them or forever face invasion threats. Quickly the Leopard VII and it's brethren were developed, largely using existing tank hulls and other craft. When it was found that even after removing much weight from the tanks hulls by using the newly developed Chobham X armor, the scaled down anti-gravity generator was insufficient to both lift & propel the tank, auxiliary jets where added powered by the incredibly compact energy generator. Several submarines & battleships where converted to carriers, tenders, and defensive craft, with huge power generators and massive AG lift systems.
The assault on Mars was ready.
The Fleet arrived in 6 waves. The 1st and 2nd landing groups suffered extreme casualties which was to some extent expected. While the bulk of the attack was targeted at what we believed were Martian installations, the real target was the poles. With the poles taken we could establish a base of operations that would be much easier to operate from than in the equatorial regions. Despite their seemingly superior technology, the Martians were soon defeated.
The Martians fought to the last tentacle, literally to their last man. The Earth Forces made several attempts in the course of the war to negotiate for peace but were always met with more assaults. After their defeat it was discovered why they fought so desperately. They had not originally come from Mars, but somewhere outside our solar system and were defending the remains of the craft that had brought them to Mars some 300 years ago. Believing the Earth to be under imminent attack the Strategic Space Command was formed to deal with this threat, should it ever come to pass.
Shown here is a Leopard VII from the Angriff Gruppe 60 soon after it's mission near the north pole of Mars. Notable are the extra water cans on the side for extended missions and the retrofitted UDH (Over The Hill) sensor pod. The Leopard VII has a 120mm taper bore main gun firing kGeduhEn (ultra high energy kinetic projectile) rounds with a coaxial mounted 20mm cannon. To the rear are two ground to air/ground to ground missiles that can be guided to target in several ways. A 13mm remote controlled machine gun is mounted over the gunners position and two 20mm gun pods are mounted below the skirts on the side. The Leopard VII can also be mounted with auxiliary wing pods, for additional rockets or cannon.
