The Black Widow
The Black Widow was a gigantic war machine developed by House Mukh as part of preparations to attack the Empire of Keshwar and launch a war to claim The God Machine. The vehicle design was based upon a species of black spider (Takla Black Widow Spider) found in The Great Takla, which it was intended to cross.
Concept and Design
The concept behind the Black Widow was to overcome the difficulty of crossing the Great Takla desert that stood between the western border of Basat and the northeastern territories of the Empire of Keshwar. Various major Houses within the Basati Senate had been competing to improve their private militias into armies, and House Mukh had the significant advantage of control of mines to provide raw materials. When Gavana Mukhadori took control of House Mukh, he persued an aggressive policy of expanding the House's military capacity. He is believed to have become fascinated by the culture of the Ancient Anther, the civilisation that preceded and seeded the Empire of Keshwar. One of the most significant documents, The Book of the Twelve Domains, detailed the work of the Anther to develop technologies that would enable them to speak to and eventually become biologically combined with the Gods. The core of this document related to the construction and existence of The God Machine, a device that enabled Humans to access the Gods Domain and unite with them as single beings. It also supposedly related the exact mechanisms required to enable Forced Kata Extraction, which would power other machines developed by the Ancient Anther.Power Generation
The Black Widow is powered exclusively via Forced Kata Extraction. The prototype was intended to combine traditional fossil fuel engine capabilities, which had also been developed by House Ramanajani and House Hamvadi, but to avoid dependence on those Houses' Scientists, House Mukh decided to rely entirely on Forced Kata.
This made the prototype that first crossed the Great Takla vulnerable if it could not acquire more Humans to feed the engines and other systems. As such, the first assault on northeastern Keshwar was in part a hunt for more people to feed the machines and those others that crossed with them.
Simultaneous attacks along the eastern Keshwar border gave House Mukh enough in terms of human kata power to continue their assault further down the Wadi Souf. At the same time, many more people were taken hostage and transferred into a second front to overtake the Empire of Ganjapur, as well as expand production of other Black Widow models.
Propulsion
The Widow's design, with a main body (including head and thorax) slung between eight legs, was intended to handle the difficult terrain of the Great Takla. Although the Basati had developed wheeled vehicles that did not require horsepower, they had struggled with the particularly difficult environment of the Takla's hot springs and hyperarid high steppe and low desert.
The Widow itself was vulnerable in the joints, but this was considered easier than attempting to push wheeled vehicles through dunes and water hot enough to melt rubber tyres. The relative lack of rubber compared to steel, and the preferences of House Mukh scientists, meant the developmental focus was on designing sand and heat-resistant joints. The Widow was then able to climb over otherwise impassable terrain to access the northeastern territories of Keshwar.
Class
Nickname
The Lady, The Spider
Manufacturer
Creation Date
Prototype designed and constructed c. 50 FEA. Production models from 50–10 FEA
Decommission Date
Prototype still in commission until 0 FEA (Ashcanesh).
Destruction Date
0 FEA.
Owning Organization
Current location
Related Myths
Related Technologies
Complement / Crew
10
Cargo & Passenger Capacity
120 (forced kata cost)
Comments