The proving grounds outside Kassel were alive with the thump of engines and the distant crack of small-arms fire.
On the snow-dusted hilltop, Bruno stood beside a group of senior officers, hands clasped behind his back, eyes fixed on the low, predatory shape of the new E-25 variant rolling into position.
Unlike its tank destroyer predecessor, this machine bristled with an entirely different kind of menace.
The main armament, an 82mm automatic mortar, rose from a fully stabilized turret, its bore gleaming under the winter sun.
The engineers had nicknamed it Donnerregen... Thunder Rain.
Its armor was no crude slab-work. Layers of composite plating sat beneath patterned arrays of early explosive reactive armor, the panels angled with purpose.
The glacis and turret cheeks bore flush-mounted optic housings, feeding real-time targeting data into a fire-control system years ahead of its time.
