Design

The LHV-64 Ravager serves as the primary light armor in the Cytaari military, heavier than biomechanical infantry walkers like the Dragonspawn series but lighter than any true biomechanical 'tank' or armor walker types. Its main role in combat is flanking and reconaissance.

With its weight spread out over a semi-circular area by its resonant levitation engines, the LHV-64 skims above the ground, able to strafe from side to side or back. Usually the resonant levitation engines are the only propulsion used, as they are more efficient- however, when needing a short-term boost in the forwards direction, magnetohydrodynamic drives on either side of the hovertanks hull can boost the vehicle to extremely high speeds.

The LHV-64 Ravager is equipped with a solar beam lance, a bioluminescent continuous-beam laser in the ultraviolet spectrum. This weapon is suitable for use against infantry formations, able to simply drag the beam across infantry companies to cut them in half. Against armor, focused fire from the beam laser will saw through even thick armor, though it requires time.

Generally speaking the beam laser is considered a primarily anti-infantry weapon, as while it can penetrate enemy armor it requires it to be focused on one spot for a significant duration of time. Packs of the biomechanical tank can, however, all focus their fire on a single spot of an enemy vehicle, quickly sawing through external armor. Since the laser is not powerful enough to produce a concussive shockwave effect, however, damage to the inside of an enemy vehicle will usually be minimal with this tactic.

 

However, in combination with more powerful biomechanical tank destroyers, or Bazlin'kizaur equipped with Ronin exosuits, the Ravager can strip its enemies defenses (including reactive armor and shielding), rendering them vulnerable to a coup de grace from more powerful single-shot anti-armor weaponry.

The Ravager's design requirements also specify an ability to act in an anti-air role; to allow this, the muscle fibers that elevate the laser weapon can move it flexibly around in the turret, allowing it to fire upwards at a 70 degree angle. The beam laser is a powerful and accurate long-range weapon capable of shredding most fighters and bombers from far away, and so the Ravager is used as the primary anti-air vehicle in Cytaari ground forces.

The LHV-64 is a single-pilot vehicle, the Lancer enclosed within their protective chrysalis towards the front of the tank. Directly behind them rests the powerful enriched plutonium reactor which powers the vehicle, while crystalline heat exchangers jut from the back of the vehicle as a cooling mechanism.

The LHV-64 is known for appearing somewhat comical when aimed directly at you, due to its biological eyes protruding from the turret. As with all Cytaari vehicles, the pilot is directly neurally wired into the vehicle, and these eyes provide their main means of detecting what is on the battlefield. However, the LHV-64 is also equipped with a multispectral scanner located on the back of the hull.

The vehicle is armored by regenerating, adaptive biomechanical armor, the same model used on most Cytaari voidships. The 'blue abyss' nanocomposite is made up of microscopic platelets of amorphous hyperdiamond (or, more properly, extremely compressed diamond-like carbon), held within a matrix of biopolymer. Living cells repair and maintain the armor, as well as the internal structure of the vehicle, so it requires no maintenance as long as it is kept fueled and stocked with nutrient solution. The rapid regeneration and adaptive carapace of the tank means it can not only heal itself from damage, but create new technology to assist it in combat as needed. Frequently, enemy forces will move on from a seemingly destroyed Ravager, only for it to regenerate from damage and return to the battle minutes later- and this time with its armor adapted to its enemies weaponry, rendering it much more difficult to destroy.

Some Ravagers are equipped with secondary weapon systems, the most common being plasma rockets which provide an explosive, indirect-fire weapon to complement their primary laser.
 

​