Light Armored Vehicles Part One

Combat cars are the new 2030 mammals

In the age of the dinosaurs, mammals never got bigger than a cat, most were mouse sized. Other creatures successfully filled the other niches of life, and mammals couldn't compete. When the big rock hit, changing the environment, and wiping out everything bigger than a dog - that was when the our ancestors came unto their own.


Similarly, the times changed, and the use of the tank faded. Vehicles needed to be able to respond faster, transported quicker, and fuel shortages meant the inefficient older tanks were often prohibitive to operate anyway. Wheeled vehicles move faster, are easier to service, and

Tank are not extinct however. Some times you just can't surpass treads for broken ground, and a big gun for direct fire. The citizens found this out the hard way, when they tried to engage human military units in the aftermath of The Event. Human railguns out-ranged lasers by a good margin, and the citizens without similar vehicles, were quite unable to counter heavy armor without resorting to heavy bombardment.


Chassis Types
There are two main types of wheeled vehicles, colloquially known as high cars and low cars. 

High cars are an armored box placed atop bogies (much like rail cars) that are functionally independent and easy to replace drive trains connected to the electrical systems - meaning the actual crew compartment is well off the ground and most of the blast from bombs and mines is absorbed by the drives. This does often mean a higher center of gravity though - and while placing the batteries along the floor as balance and further protection helps, many vehicles built on this patter forgo large turrets for small remote mounts or recoil-less weapons.

Low cars use a more conventional chassis, integrated into the hull of the vehicles.While this method doesn't have the ease of maintenance of outer bogies, nor the added mine protection - it does limit damage to the drive trains better, and allows for a lower center of gravity, and in turn, little problem mounting turrets. 1960s and 70's designs like the V-150 commando, BRDM, Mowag Piranha and LAV-25 would not look out of place in the 2050s, and indeed many of their descendants continue to serve.


Protection
Most vehicles start with a steel or aluminum box, though some use more exotic armor types (Polly-aligned alloy of either steal or aluminum - PAAS "Pace" and PAAL "Pale" respectively - nano metal fibers wrapped around other materials, with a structure similar to the neodymium in magnets).

Firepower
Many land vehicles have now copied the naval concept of VLS (Vertical Launch System) cells to provide rapid tracking missile batteries. Many tanks have a distinct hump on the turret bustle for surface to air missiles, while armored cars, while some cars are just a driver, commander, and a bunch of missiles pointed upwards behind them.