Reincarnated in Another World as a P. 1000 Ratte

Age of Titans: Glykon

Now, you might be asking "who puts winterketten on a tank that's not even rated to drive on hills, never mind snow?" The reason why he chose this feature has something to do with how the Ratte's tracks were designed. 

The tracks were said to be a good few meters thick, and his tracks were probably thicker than that, as not everything translates cleanly from paper. Said tracks were also a few meters wide, and obviously over a hundred feet long. 

Understandably, trying to attach extensions to something this massive is A. impossible and B. not needed, and even if you could, you would run into the problem where you would have to remove the armor skirts in order to let the tracks make a full cycle. 

The angel's magic solved this in a couple of ways. First off, the winterketten extensions themselves were half a car wide and just as thick as the original tracks, serving the intended purpose of spreading weight over a wider area. 

Due to the sheer size of the winterketten, in theory, it would also act as ostketten as the surface area covered would also help in boggy and muddy conditions. Granted, the Ratte might still get stuck, but at least now he could travel over softer terrain. 

Perhaps not as soft as mud, but now he won't get stopped by regular soil either. And since he asked for winterketten specifically, this meant that the track extensions served the dual purpose of also helping out to traverse snow and ice. 

Once again, the weight of the Ratte might cause it to sink in such conditions, but not completely get stuck. 

Secondly, this version of winterketten was made in a way so that it could fold under the armor skirt. When the track rotates and the winterketten comes into contact with the armor, the force applied folds it inwards, thus hiding it from view. 

(A/N): I know this sounds far-fetched, but here me out.

The winterketten extension continues to remain hidden until it reaches the other side of the Ratte. At that point, once there's no more armor keeping it in a specific position, it springs out quickly, increasing the overall ground covered by the tank.

Normally, when you have tracks scraping against armor, both wear out a lot faster; but the thickness of both the Ratte's armor and track solve this problem by itself. Also, it didn't appear as if the winterketten was scraping against the main track; just the side skirt. 

While this does bring up the point of the winterketten being the biggest weak spot on the Ratte, once again the thickness solves the problem. Aside from a direct cannon hit or a very violent physical attack, the tracks can withstand a lot of punishment. 

While the friction from the armor and winterketten interacting with each other would cause a lot of noise, the Ratte is already noisy with his marine engines. And don't even get started on speed; he's always going to be at a snail's pace. 

Rumbling across an opening with forests on either side of him, he noticed some of the pebbles on the ground jumping and skittering into the air. Some were jumping a few centimeters off the ground, and some a full inch. 

And one in particular, jumped a whole half a foot. 

He stopped, doing a double take. The pebble remained still. And continued to remain still. 

As he was about to start moving again, a whole group of pebbles suddenly lifted themselves a full foot into the air, coming back onto the ground with such force that some of them shattered. 

Swiveling his turrets in opposite directions to cover as many LOS paths as possible, the landscape remained quiet. 

Very quiet.