Good evening, sapients. I am here to present a paper. Please hold your critique and groans until the end.
Cannon artillery is a common innovation. Its the first gas propelled weapon most species invent. But as I am sure many of us know, the humans have a peculiar desire to retain it. What is the reason? Is it because of something in their biology? I don't think its that straightforward. I believe it is somethint I have deemed the 'French 75 Mechanism'. The French 75 Mechanism is the ranged persistence predators ability to stay on target, not just to find it. Their 'random' artillery is in fact precision, only a different definition of it.
Species from atmospheres capable of significant gas expansion will use gun artillery until they develop precision munitions. Artillery then becomes a matter of finding a particular target rather than the randomness of massed guns. My colleagues will say that massed artillery is far less lethal, they will groan and complain, despite the facts against them.
Persistence ranged weapon predators, unlike us, have a keen interest in retaining these weapons. Even when they have invented directed energy weapons and guided missiles, they keep gun artillery in their back pocket. We see this in their spacecraft and their ocean going vessels, all retain 'deck guns' for close range fire. This artillery can be extremely precise, yet still keeps its aspect of being gun artillery. If it can kill a single individual in a crowd of thousands it remains gun artillery.
My colleagues will frequently attribute this to their organic ability to calculate ranged weapons. Humans are the particular case study in this paper. They are the type of persistence predator that can calculate when to fire, and how to lead a target, without assistance. We've seen several species like this. But that cannot be the only answer! I have a speculation. All these species share one machine in common that I have deemed 'The French 75 mechanism'.
Our weapons can recalibrate after every shot. This is how species like mine, who used spears for stabbing rather than throwing, are able to engage in long range combat.
Persistence predator artillery has not needed to do so for centuries. For the humans, not since the French 75. The French 75 was an ancient human cannon that was their first artillery weapon that did not need to be recalibrated. It absorbed the recoil of the weapon and could fire at the same point with only a hair of inaccuracy by the standards of the time. This is the difference. It is their persistence.
I experienced this in my youth on the invasion of Metz, from an eccentric human woman who kept old war machines for reenactments. I was a grenadier in the 576th Scout Battalion. We were dropped onto an outer settlement, to link up with other troops. We were marching down a road. It was a peaceful land, beautiful and green.
The hedge beside us exploded. The five men in front of me were gone, shattered by shrapnel shells. Three seconds later another came in. The men behind me were gone. I dove into the ditch beside us. I stuck my rifle above the edge and the camera could see a large grey machine several kilometers away.
They fired two more shells in the time it took to do that. Their machine guns opened up; these were the human soldiers we expected, but my eyes were drawn to that machine. We were surprised by the women when we first dropped. In those days, female soldiers were a shock to us. I saw them with that cannon and I was confused. Such weapons should have tripped our sensors. The heat signature, the electronic guidance, anything! This ambush shouldn't have been this easy!
This was not long range missiles or energy fire, it wasn't even the mortars or the cannons they told us to expect. These were shells made for a cannon developed before the humans even reached their poles. And as I watched this manually loaded cannon sent two more shells and a dozen of my men straight to hell.
I didn't know how old it was at the time of course. I saw more soldiers ripped apart by this cannon. I could see the enemy with my power armor binoculars. They were crouched behind the shrapnel shield, hurrying to load this cannon. There was no automation, there was no shield. We fired our weapons at them. A human fell and another ran to take his place.
I had my men crawl out of the ditch toward the enemy. All four of my legs were splayed out while my manipulators were in front. The gun continued firing. I thought moving would distract it. Yet they walked it up and down our line. No hesitation, no imprecise move, nothing but death. It could hit the same point twice without a hair of deviation.
I heard one of our vehicles drive up. I thought it would stop them. Instantly it hit the vehicle with an armor piercing round. I wasn't worried. Then it fired again. At the same exact spot.
It wasn't an auto cannon, they were manually loading after each shot. As I watched, they twisted a rotating screw breech, and the hydro pneumatic recoil mechanism absorbed the blast. The new shell went down range and smashed into our vehicle. Then it fired a fourth time. The armor should have withstood it, but three rounds on the same spot where the armor was already cracked? It blew. I saw the mushroom cloud from where I was hiding. The humans clearly weren't using their ancestors shells. I found later they had 3-D printed shells with modern wisdom.
I couldn't believe it. It was beyond primitive. Yet it was putting more shells on the same target than we ever could when we had manual cannons, and with an efficiency those ancestors of mine could only dream of. 30 rounds a minute! In a manual cannon!
I put a drone in the air and they shot it down. I heard their jeers, calling us elephants as they did in those days. One of our squads tried to charge when they blew our vehicle and they were cut down. We were stuck.
We traded fire, killing several and more took their place. We tried to provoke them, but each time they fired, and the barrel came to rest, they could shell the same spots once again. Guns like that should have leapt into the air or been forced to recalibrate. They were firing 30 rounds a minute and not once did they have to recalibrate!
We settled down to get a tank in. But I heard a motor start and before I could blink, the entire ambush force was driving away, the French 75 among them.
They had taken this cannon out of reenactment to fight us. The eccentric human who owned it drilled her men and women like they were fighting their first world war. They were just as good as any reserve human crew. This ancient gun, crewed by reenactors and developed before the humans attained flight, had pinned down a force that had dropped from orbit. It was precise yet used the massed shell technique the human militaries are known for.
This is not merely human behavior, this is the persistence predator's tool. Some will develop guided weapons but always the artillery will remain. Because gun artillery is not as imprecise as so many claim. It is in fact quite accurate. Far too accurate for any armchair generals to claim.
It is not solely the accuracy that matters. Merely effectiveness. But more than that, the French 75 Mechanism illustrates why the persistence ranged predators value their gun artillery.
'Elephants', or herbivores like myself will smash a target to pieces, but we are lumbering in how we do it. We use computers to recalibrate every single shot. The humans and other predators like them do not need to. That innovation is what gives them an edge.
Pursuit predators, like the Depoel, can chase down an enemy vehicle but must rest immediately. Their precision weapons will kill a target, but they will not remain on the same target for so long. If it is not dead they will not pursue, rationalizing that the war effort will kill them eventually.
The persistence predator has fire and forget weapons. Their seekers will go for kilometers to find the target they wounded. Their weapons will hit the same target for hours in the name of stopping it. They will not rest until the target is dead.
In fact, this is a problem for them. A persistence predators military is about ensuring they obey orders, that they are disciplined and will not pursue prey, for their history is littered with stories of armies that fell apart when they pursued the enemy in the thrill of the chase. Because a persistence predator will not give up.
If their prey animal retreats, they will follow. If the prey runs, they will walk. No matter how far the prey goes, they will find it. Is it any wonder they defeated my people, when they had to revive the ones who looked like us? Because their wooly mammoths were extinct. They endangered their whale population, those who look like some of my colleagues here. And according to them, the hunting of whales goes back so far they aren't even sure when it started. The same persistence of their ancestors that killed those ancient mammoths, that was hunting their whales before they could cross oceans, was what pinned my unit down, and ultimately defeated my people when we made the foolish decision to invade Metz.
The French 75 Mechanism is the ranged persistence predators ability to stay on target, not just to find it or how precisely they do it. Their 'random' artillery is in fact precision, only a different definition of it. They will hunt the target down, and this is reflected no less than in their gun artillery.
Ils ne passeront pas. And they mean it.
- Acireas, professor at Wrangel University, from a paper he read while writing 'The French 75 Mechanism: The Study of the Persistence Predators of the Galaxy'.