Culebre

"Fire the Culebre! Show the Aurelians that she lives up to her namesake!"

- The commander of the Culebre ordering the gun to fire

The Culebre was a giant Railgun operated by the Democratic Republic of Leasath, a nation of Earth, as a part of her aerial and naval defences. Operated by a crew of the Leasath Army, whose fire control and command centre was within the base of the gun, the Culebre had huge range, her covered the whole of Leasath, and far out in the Aerland Ocean, giving her the ability to decimate whole fleets of would-be invaders.

Whilst the Culebre could use satellites to locate and engage her targets, she worked best with Forward Fire Control Centres (FFCC), these centres were typically located around Leasath's coasts, and gave detailed information to the Culebre on any naval invasion fleet or aerial attack force, in order to attack the targets the Culebre would either fire High Explosive shells, for use against enemy fleets, or special Magnetic Shells, which were designed to explode upon detecting metals, hopefully exploding within the centre of an enemy aerial force, blowing it apart.

The gun was named after the Culebre, a Dragon from Leasathian mythology, the name was chosen because the firing of her shells was described as her "Breathing Fire", whilst the sound she made was viewed as analogous to a "Dragon's Roar", the name was also viewed as having an intimidating factor.

"What name could be better for a huge Railgun than that of a huge Dragon?"

- The designer of the Culebre giving his reasoning on his choice of that particular name

Originally ordered in 23 BBY by Miguel Terrajo, the Head of State of Leasath during the Leasath Civil War, as a means of wresting control of the air back from the Nationalists, the partially-complete Culebre was abandoned at the war's end in late 22 BBY, the Culebre was completed by the new Nationalist government of Diego Navarro at the very end of the year, and was intergrated into Leasath's national defences.

Trivia
The Culebre was inspired by the Balaur, a Railgun from Ace Combat: Joint Assault, which was located in southern Romania and was operated by Valahia, an Eastern European terrorist organisation which sought to see a new Communist state within Eastern Europe. "Balaur" is a multi-headed dragon from Romanian mythology, which served as inspiration for the name of "Culebre, which is an alternate name for Cuélebre, a winged serpent-dragon from Asturian mythology, the writer has integrated Cuélebre (as Culebre) into the mythology of his version of Leasath.