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Nostalgia4ColdWar fucked around with this message at 00:40 on Mar 31, 2017 |
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May 15, 2013 19:17
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Nostalgia4ColdWar fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Mar 31, 2017 |
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May 16, 2013 10:39
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Nostalgia4ColdWar fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Mar 31, 2017 |
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May 16, 2013 12:25
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Nostalgia4ColdWar fucked around with this message at 00:46 on Mar 31, 2017 |
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May 16, 2013 23:29
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Nostalgia4ColdWar fucked around with this message at 00:45 on Mar 31, 2017 |
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May 17, 2013 02:59
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Nostalgia4ColdWar fucked around with this message at 00:47 on Mar 31, 2017 |
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May 21, 2013 21:59
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Nostalgia4ColdWar fucked around with this message at 00:51 on Mar 31, 2017 |
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Jun 5, 2013 00:42
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So, we've taken a look at how the CS would have to be set up in order for it to be a functional nation. Now, this won't cover Tolkeen, Lazlo, New Lazlo, because obviously they make extensive use of magic. But, just like high technology, magic can NOT be a 'cure all' for everything, although it will have different types of benefits and penalties, just like technology does. The biggest benefit magic can give is reactionless engines that run off a constantly renewing energy source (PPE) from the ley-lines. But, back to the CS. It's time to take a good look at something the books don't really look at, and we deconstruct one of KS's basic flawed assumptions. First of all, we need to take a look at some basic things. The population either lives in fortified mega-cities, fortified cities, fortified towns, or fortified enclaves. NO CS community can afford to be un-fortified. Teleportation, magic, giant robots, juicers, all of it makes a settlement vulnerable to terrorist actions. This means that the citizens of the CS are used to having given up certain liberties for actual security in addition to perceived security. Now, some might argue they deserve neither, but these aren't the guys who make decisions, they are just trying to live in a harsh and brutal world. Second is that they live under a constant media propaganda blitz. There are no videos of peaceful DB farmers, those farmers are shown slaughtered and the whole "Even their own kind isn't safe from them!" or there are DB villages, protected by the CS, that are little more than forced labor but protected and paraded around as "Good DB's" when they are enslaved, but the average CS citizen isn't going to see that side or even understand it. Even if they were to see it, the cognitive dissonance would give them a way to explain it away. There are constant Star Chamber show trials of insurgents and terrorists and traitors, all of them DB's, mages, or psionic using people. There will be the highly broadcasted 'trial' where the criminal was found under mind control and pardoned, that way it increases the chances of people turning in loved ones who start acting strange since 'everyone knows' that justice will be done and the truth will be found. Above all of this is the Emperor as the Father Figure, wise, benevolent to the citizenry, and an avenging angel against the enemies of the CS. KS has stated again and again that the Prosek's are master manipulators, and this would show through in their propaganda. We need to address the whole "Loves Adolph Hitler" aspect that Sembedia harps on. It's an attempt to cash in on emotional rather than intellectual knee jerk reactions by the reader to paint them as solely evil, without looking at why they might be idolizing and following in his footsteps. Germany was bankrupt, in massive debt, with national identity problems, and it was turned into a powerhouse despite being surrounded by powerful enemies. I also imagine that the Proseks and their advisors also pay attention to post World War I and World War II America for the rebuilding. Speeches, indoctrination, 'otherizing' outsiders, showing that the people of the CS HAVE enemies that will brutally kill them or even worse, all help to solidify control. Erin Tarn babbles on, but shows a frighteningly ignorance about reality for a 'scholar' in her writings. She doesn't understand how the people of the CS could live under such things, all the while surrounding herself with powerful and skilled people with the combined firepower of a mid-20th Century armor division. To the average CS citizen, all that stands between brutal death and safety are four things:
Which isn't much. They know that DB's and the Rifts destroyed civilization before. The Tri-HD shows plenty of destroyed settlements every year. Hundreds of troops come home in body bags every year, or are just a coffin full of dirt. Everyone in the CS knows someone who has lost someone and all they have is a lovely plaque with the name and rank and some platitudes about how they died. They live in an scientific and technologically advanced society. Which means they are not ignorant and illiterate because those people could kill themselves and others really easily. KS cites computer programs that 'read' for people, but that's even worse. How do we teach a child to read? By reading to them. People would pick up how to read just like that. Even the vaunted 'iconoliteracy' that's been bandied around wouldn't work that well. The CS infrastructure produces and utilizes advancements that we can foresee but cannot manufacture yet, and look at the high state of literacy required now. Sure, you can argue that the CS is a post-scarcity society, but this is far from the truth. Robots can't do all the work, and people would be mistrustful of full automation due to software corruption and the energy of the ley-lines. This means they need computer programmers, robotics designers, engineers, architects, teachers, the whole nine yards. In order for the CS to make sense as a high tech society, THEY MUST BE LITERATE. The citizenry is also taxed, probably heavily, in return for their protection. Unlike modern military expenditure the CS military is engaged in combat with invaders every single day somewhere. While they pick fights quite a bit, they can still expect an ambush at any moment. Forward operating bases and even logistics bases in the rear come under attack quite often. Body armor would be mandatory outside of buildings at any CS military base due to the chance of some rear end in a top hat using a mortar to lob in shells. The CS citizenry do not live lives of liesure, even though they are comfortable compared to the majority of people outside of CS, Lazlo, New Lazlo, and Tolkeen. The CS manufactures of imports luxury items like cars, jewelry, games, Tri-HD, MP3 players, the whole nine yards, which increases tax revenue. Your average CS citizen is NOT an evil person, they see themselves as under siege by invaders who already destroyed human civilization once, and would gladly do it again. The citizenry MUST be educated, unless they do nothing but live on welfare and sit around in their apartments all day playing VR games. Otherwise they'd kill each other, themselves, and lots of people by doing stupid poo poo that the slightest bit of education and literacy would prevent. Remember, many of them live in huge arcologies, and it would be simple for some idiot to open an emergency venting point and fill a corridor full of radioactive high pressure fluorine gas. With that, let us move to the government. Here's where most people just say "The Emperor is in charge and everyone just does as he says." This is a fallacy, and must be corrected. If the Proseks idolize Hitler, one thing Hitler did was surround himself with people who were much better than he was (even if the results were horrific) and the Proseks would take this to heart. So, we'll need to create a functioning government. The best thing they'd probably pattern themselves after is the somewhat militaristic and imperialistic US government. So to American players, the various government entities would be familiar. We'd have:
Prosek may have wanted to make them illiterate, but he'd have been quickly talked out of that. Simply by giving a bunch of illiterate poorly educated burbites a nice place to live and then show the Emperor how they all killed themselves by eating the chiclet package in the box of the Tri-HD. But what Erin Tarn might not understand is that they aren't illiterate, but rather their lexicon is limited by their education, the amount of material they've read that hasn't been censored or rewritten could fit in the trunk of a car. That and why read when you can watch Tri-HD? But let's keep looking at the government. Now, each 'city-state' (the best phrase for the CS mega-cities and the smaller ones) has it's own versions of the offices listed above. The Emperor would select each city-state leader himself (probably with the 'confirmation' rubber stamp from the Department of the Interior section) to ensure that the city-state falls in line with official policy. The difficult one would be Free Quebec, since they have their own serious national identity that stretches back as far as Chi-Town, there's French (which makes it harder for the Chi-Town censors to work over), and Free Quebec was also center of military forces and civilian refugees during the Great Cataclysm. Each City-State has its own manufacturing, it's own military recruitment, and the ability to rearm the military in their region. One of the things DH&S does is ensure that the people of each City-State don't develop nationalism for their city-state, but rather for the CS as a whole. They often encourage citizens who have just hit their majority (let's say age of voting, drinking, joining the military are all 21, since the CS is canonically using longetivity drugs for the populace) to move to another City State for job opportunities. We also need to make "Civil Service" a mandatory 3 year gig that starts at 18. Civil Service is not just joining the military, but also being transfered to another City-State, farm, manufacturing plant, all according to testing done during their years of education. If someone is lovely at reading and show no interest in it, they aren't encouraged in it, and just have to have basic iconolitarcy and have to learn basic language. Trade schools and 'apprenticeships' are very common, and probably consist of a whopping 60% of CS citizen's later education. This three year gig also will have the citizen rated on "political dependability" which often supersedes actual skill or ability for administration and leadership jobs. Additionally every type of large job pool has "Health & Hygiene Officers" who work for DH&S that the workers view as keeping them safe from psionic and magical assaults on their minds. Yes, they gauge political reliability, but that's only right, since only a mad-man or someone warped by magic or psionics would harbor hatred toward the CS! These people supervise the factory floor, offer verbal encouragement, help out with problems a citizen might be having. The H&HO's are actually a quite clever plan. Taking the place of priests, confessors, and mentors, the H&HO aren't hated, but rathered looked at as fatherly figures. These guys are directly connected to the Emperor, and speak with his voice. They care about the citizens, even the ones who work in the sewage reclaimation center. If a spouse is abusive, you've lost your job, you can't make rent, your land-lord or block supervisor isn't fixing utilities, your car broke down, you need medical care that you don't qualify for, this guy will intercede, in the name of the Emperor (of course) and get things done for you. Of course some of those emergencies that you have to see him for are manufactured by him or his office, but hey, you don't see that. You just see that your kid got cancer from Tasty-Fruit and he got you medical care and reported Tasty-Fruit and they got fined and you got part of the fine. (Tasty-Fruit agreed to this as part of the 'citizen loyalty program' since the economy is controlled by the Department of the Interior) The citizenry of the CS are well fed, have UHC, and plenty of entertainment. There's plenty of work to keep them busy, happy, and productive (The motto of the Department of Labor withing the Department of the Interior is ironically 'Work Will Set You Free' which the people eat the gently caress up) members of society. They've been under propaganda their entire lives, their view of the outside world is warped by PR and propaganda where they know that outside is a short and brutal life full of pain, fear, and danger. Let's bring up some stats. Median age: total: 42.7 years male: 39.6 years female: 45.9 years Population growth rate: 2.4% (Compared to 5.4% in 60 PA and 3.8% in 40 PA, and estimated 1.3% prior to 20PA, as well as 6.3% during the Dark Ages) Birth rate: 21.33 births/1,000 population Death rate: 14.11 deaths/1,000 population Net migration rate: 5.72 migrant(s)/1,000 population Urbanization: Urban population: 73% of total population Rate of urbanization: 0.6% annual rate of change Sex ratio: at birth: 1.12 male(s)/female 0-14 years: 1.11 male(s)/female 15-24 years: 1.09 male(s)/female 25-54 years: 1 male(s)/female 55-64 years: 0.83 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.82 male(s)/female total population: 0.96 male(s)/female Maternal mortality rate: 7 deaths/100,000 live births Infant mortality rate: total: 2.9 deaths/1,000 live births male: 3.21 deaths/1,000 live births female: 1.69 deaths/1,000 live births Life expectancy at birth: total population: 165.13 years male: 159.62 years female: 171.38 years Total fertility rate: 6.2 children born/woman Health expenditures: 21.4% of GDP Physicians density: 11.91 physicians/1,000 population Hospital bed density: 7 beds/1,000 population Drinking water source: improved: urban: 100% of population rural: 99% of population total: 99% of population unimproved: urban: 0% of population rural: 1% of population total: 0.1% of population Sanitation facility access: improved: urban: 100% of population rural: 99% of population total: 100% of population unimproved: urban: 0% of population rural: 1% of population total: 0% of population Genetic Mutation - adult prevalence rate: 2.4% Unrepaired Mutation - people living with Genetic Mutation 240,000 Education expenditures - Including Censoring: 8.5% of GDP Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 79% male: 73% female: 85% School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education): total: 16 years male: 15 years female: 17 years As you can see, the CS is hell on wheels, but that comes at a great cost, which we'll cover in the 'Burbs rebuild. The Citizens of the CS are honestly terrified of DB's and mages. Seeing one will cause hysteric panic or aggressive responses, since a high percentage of the population has military experience and has come under fire at least once in their career. (Making sure that a low threat area with bandits that are waaaay outmatched by the CS military ensures that everyone gets a few weeks of combat under their belt to ensure human supremist attitudes) Mutants are another matter, and directly related to the Burbs. Most of the mutations can be cured via retro-viral genetic engineering, but the controllable mutations are often left in place and the user trained in their use. The CS wastes NOTHING. The Burbs. God, what a cluster gently caress according to RAW. Millions of people waiting for employment or entrance to the CS? Horse loving poo poo. That's a security nightmare. We're talking riots, police attacks, and all kinds of nasty poo poo. So, we'll have to redesign the Burbs. Now, it looks like we're making a kindler, gentler CS, but oh no no no. They will come out far far more ruthless than before. It's just that there will be a framework for the zealotry, and maybe a way for the PC's to understand that they aren't fighting SPACE NAZI'S but rather a civilization that has clawed its way up over the pile of bones that was once a human only society. Remember that line from the original Red Dawn? "WE WERE HERE FIRST!" Yeah, that's the CS against everyone else. So, we've got a functioning government, we've got an explaination on the citizenry, and why there's such a high amount of vets in CS society (estimates by DH&S puts it at roughly 42% of the population has military experience) and what people do with their time. Any questions before we move onto the 'Burbs and then finally the military of the CS? I realize this was kind of rambling, but trying to apply real world sociology to a fictional universe is difficult. Nostalgia4ColdWar fucked around with this message at 14:08 on Jun 21, 2013 |
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Jun 6, 2013 04:45
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The Arcologies and Burbs The "elite" of the CS live in the arcologies and the surrounded "Protected Districts" behind a high MDC wall with point defenses, air defenses, and anti-magic defenses. These arcologies are designed based on Pre-Rifts designs to handle urban over-crowding in the metropolises. Additionally the CS had the data from NASA and 'Project Starscream' for self-sustained cities to be built on Mars as part of the Terraforming Project (Green Mars Project, see Mutants in Orbit, which we're mostly ignoring) and the early CS leaders (Many of them descended from the military leadership of the surviving military forces of NEMA and the US & Canadian military) decided that a self-contained arcology might be exactly what would be needed to survive the Great Cataclysm. Chi-Town was built along these lines (although it took a long time to be finished, and there are theories that the arcology was actually designed Pre-Cataclysm as an experiment by the American Empire) to provide completely self-sufficient cities. Underground are sewage and water treatment and processing, primary power generators (Chi-Town boasts a working geo-thermal plant, unlike the unused one at Lone Star), with levels above being strategic stockpile resource storage. Above that is the manufacturing facilities, many of which are not in use any longer, or have never been in use but the CS prefers not to pull them apart. (A good example would be Level B3A2, which produces some kind of high velocity kinetic weapon system, but requires orbital manufactured parts that the CS does not possess and were used for maintenance of war machines long gone during the Dark Ages) Down here there are "Subbie Gangs" that have left the upper levels for many different reasons, from mutation, to crime, to just non-government beliefs. Every year CS investigators find another section that had previously been overlooked or even misidentified. The "deep levels" give rise to the rumors that the arcology was there before the CS and the NEMA survivors moved into it as there are strange equipment that nobody is quite sure what it is for. The arcology has 'between floors' where the environmental systems are. Once again there are gangs of mutants, rogue dog-boys, and criminals who hide out in the parts of these maintenance levels that are unused and abandoned. Many of the levels seem to be for advanced environmental scrubbing. (If the rumors are true, feel free to have a lot of these systems clogged by volcanic ash) The arcology is not a solid building, but rather there are hollow sections, mainly artificial parks and vast hydroponic gardens. The Chi-Town arcology is massive, literally square miles inside. There are four main "shafts" inside that are from the base floors to the very top, which can be protected by retracting 'blast shielding' although they are only tested once every few years. Surrounding these primary shafts are malls and stores on the lower levels and at places on the way up. The arcology is literally 340 stories, with the half-stories in between it is 510 stories totaol, 5,130 feet tall. The upper levels of the shaft areas are high end housing and high end stores, for the rich and elite. Contrary to popular belief, the Proseks actually live on 265, with one of the smaller secondary shafts that uses clear polyceramic shielding that is always closed with a thicker armor shield. The outside is heavily armed with point defense systems, anti-air systems, SAMAS and Sky Cycle bases. The majority of the outer layer is military controlled, much to the irritation of the rich and elite who would like to have those outside sections and are jealous of the high ranking officers who have housing there. What they don't realize is there is sporadic terrorist attacks by teleporting attackers who often fire off magic or a man-portable missile barrage. While most of the time the shields snap into place, the point defense can often handle the missiles, but now and then attacks get through. The arcologies have a thin disenfranchised class, a small lower class, a large and healthy middle class, and an upper class. Upward mobility is supposedly merit based, but in reality cronyism and patronage make a big deal. The lower class is mostly people who have just managed to get citizenship to one of the arcologies, and are the most watched by arcology security. This is known in advance and signed for in advance. The middle class encompasses everything from factory workers to management, with taxes as high as 33%. The upper class handles upper management, higher up government positions, and company owners. Interestingly enough the higher class pays up to 80% income tax. Above that are the truly elite, which has a tax bracket of 90%, and are either current or former CEO's of massive CS companies, high level government officials, and 'Heroes of the Empire". While obvious security is pretty much even between the classes, the hidden security is more intense the more important the family is. Outside the arcologies are the rest of the city. These are massive buildings built of MDC construction materials, some as high as 250 stories high, that are everything from corporation offices to housing. These city sections stretch out for several miles around the arcologies and have internal walls built to handle security and other problems. (In 27 PA a plague broke out, supposedly released by Federation of Magic agents, but possibly a DB disease that got into the population. At that time the walls were used to seal off infected sections, and it was proven that those internal walls had air defense and other defenses) Air traffic is strictly controlled by computer assisted air traffic control. Quality of life is high within these city sections, and while crime is low, it is not entirely absent. (Estimations put it at 1 per 10,000, while official stats put it at 1.7 per 10,000) Beyond that and the greater city walls are "the Burbs", which is the growth of the mega-cities in flux. While there is crime, much of it is in either the sections suffering urban decay or the outer sections. The closer to the wall, the higher the standard of living, the better the police protection and law enforcement reaction times, and the higher the citizens identify with the CS. These sections are often slated to become the next section of the city, and the politicians living there are always trying to get the CS to grant them official recognition as part of the megacity. While the more crime ridden sections of the 'Burbs may have DB's and mutants, these DB's and mutants are more likely to be registered with the CS. Mutants often hope to be granted retroviral gene therapy to cure their mutation and acceptance into the CS. The DB races often claim to be mutants and are close enough to Earth Human to pass on a gene scan. There are widely publicized DB 'enclaves' where 'good DB's' are allowed to live, and often tell horror stories of outside and the monsters that haunt the non-CS areas. Outside that is CS controlled territory. Many people think it is largely wilderness with sporadic patrols, but in reality it is largely settled with farms, manufacturing, military bases, towns, small cities, controlled zones, and other regions necessary for a large nation. Unlike the US there are constant patrols in CS territory, from robot combat armor patrols, SAMAS and Sky Cycle patrols, vehicle patrols, and ground patrols. Interlocked phased radar arrays watch the skies, leylines are patrolled heavily with backup only minutes away, the ley-line nexuses are heavily fortified with a high military presence experienced in fighting invaders from the Rifts and magic users. Ley-lines and nexuses extensively use mass detection systems and motion detectors as well as vibration sensors (programmed to record but not display patrols) in order to find invisible enemies. In the contested areas the patrols are heavy, but those areas (Southern Texas and other regions) do not enjoy the advantage of the security infrastructure that the more settled areas do. This makes raider attacks harder to detect in advance, and drone flights more likely to be shot down. In Southern and Central Texas drones are routinely shot down to the point where it's rare for a commander to send out a reaction force to check the area the drone was shot down in. Even high altitude ones can be vulnerable to a bored robot jock or aerial enemy force. The shanty towns around the "Burbs are more like what Sembedia described the 'Burbs as in the Core Rule Book, temporary settlements that are often bulldozed down or everyone is flushed out of. Many times these 'cluster towns' are built on the remains of Pre-Rifts towns, some of which still have working infrastructure that just needs maintenance. Some of these Cluster Towns are decades old, are known black market areas, but are allowed to exist due to the fact they fill some kind of demand within the CS. At the very least they work as areas to concentrate troublemakers so they aren't spread out through the larger population. While in the suburbs the police maintain a strong presence, they often treat the citizenry with kid gloves, since the CS troops may run into CS citizens who prefer to live and work in the suburbs. The Cluster Towns and the more crime ridden Fringe Areas (which are more like the Core Rulebook burbs) the police presence is the same, just with quick reaction forces often deployed all over the city. Summary execution and the more harsh penalties are in force in those areas, as well as officer discretion toward applicable force being more lenient. Interestingly enough the more zealot of the CS citizens often come out of the burbs areas. These are people who are proving their loyalty, are in the military to earn citizenship, and who whole heartedly believe in the CS way of life. Even the odd DB from the "Enclaves" who joins the military is often a bigger zealot than their human comrades. This has led to few DB's earning citizenry within the arcologies, and more than a few Heroes of the Empire that are DB's or former mutants. There are very few mutants within the CS, mainly because of gene therapy treatments. (CS territory mutants need to only make 1 roll on the Gamma World mutation charts. The most they might have is 1d4-1 mutations (minimum of 1) and any disadvantage mutation is rerolled with the best of the rolls taken. One interesting thing about CS territory is the "Coalition States Geological Survey Service" has been making very careful scans of CS territory. They have found, since 73 PA, six areas that were marked as hazardous areas due to 'Pre-Rifts reactor meltdowns" and are cordoned off by the military. In reality these are the same kind of facilities as Lone Star, just usually in much worse shape. However these sites have been a gold mine, data, equipment, and refurbishing the two that were recoverable has provided excellent high security military R&D facilities to do research that the Lone Star facility is either not configured to do or has set to the side. "Site Baker" is a dog boy creche area, complete with the force-growth lab, that has minimal human interaction and mostly just over-sight. It's also where a lot of dog-boys retire to, and it's seen by dog-boys as the equivalent of living in the upper levels of Chi-Town. Another amazing find by the CS was a "genome vault" that contained uncontaminated seedling, embryos, and the like from before the Great Cataclysm, including the 'enhanced wheat' strains used by the CS. Highways connect towns, cities, and the like, and are patrolled by the CS military. and there's quite a bit of traffic. From robotic convoys of massive cargo trucks controlled by dog-brain AI systems and guarded by SAMS to small family sized ground-cars heading to a vacation area or to another city for a visit. Sensor systems and survelliance on these highways is high, as the CS high command understands that those highways are a weakness, a target for terrorists, and a potential invasion route. The population of the CS understands that compared to the rest of Rifts America they are indeed wealthy, secure, and prosperous. The society is jingoistic and military worshiping, with career military soldiers being held in high esteem. While in Free Quebec they hold in higher esteem Glitter Boy Pilots, who are usually following family tradition and have a long family military linage which can be traced into the Dark Ages and the Great Cataclysm. However they are just as jingoistic and myrmidon as the rest of the CS. CS Iron Heart has been fully brought into the fold, and often the citizens of Iron Heart are more fanatical and zealotry filled than members of Chi-Town. Lone Star is NOT a standard city, as it is 96% military or former military, covered in heavy security, with NO 'enclaves', fringe areas, or DB's allowed. The Lone Star territory, however, has a higher number of DB's and mutants than the rest of the CS. The CS Census, completed in 95 PA, was 32.9 million. Chi-Town: 3.3 million CS State of Illinios: 7.8 million CS Missiouri: 6.6 million CS New Chillicothe: 1,980,000 CS Texas: 2.5 million CS Lone Star: 125,000 (50,000 human) CS Iron Heart: 3.9 million CS Iron City: 480,000 CS Free Quebec: 4.3 million CS Free Quebec (City) 2.1 million That's counting only citizens and registered squatters/indigent personnel. The census put an estimation of another 9.4 million non-citizens. Among citizens unemployment is a startlingly low 0.6% (not counting retirees and disabled veterans), and even the non-citizen unemployment rate is amazingly low despite what other nations believe, only 1.34% among even the DB's. One of the reasons that the CS has a high immigration rate is because the Department of the Interior has estimated that there at 1.76 jobs per person. The pressures of maintaining such a large military is actually hurting the GDP of the CS, as the propaganda of the last 30 years has caused a 'brain drain' from the civilian sector, and the military industrial complex has risen to consume 60% of R&D, manufacturing, and military support, pulling away a vast percentage of the CS's potential into the military. CS Citizens have several 'quality of life' enhancements that non-CS citizens either do not have or do not even dream is possible. Gene therapy is possible in the womb, and genetic testing has enabled the CS to make sure that the chance of birth defects is so small that it can be mathematically said to not exist. (Birth defect/mutation rate is 1.25 per 10,000 live births) Additionally they have a small cybernetic device implanted during childhood that boosts the immune system, can clean parasites, bacteria, and viruses from the host. Those who suffer birth defects or injury get cybernetics or bioware to correct the problem, as part of the Universal Health Care system. Longevity treatments (including gene therapy) have slowed aging, with the most recent generation having a adolescent phase that lasts from 12 to 19, with full adulthood onsetting at 21. (A 21 year old CS citizen looks about 18, and then ages much slower than non-CS citizens) CS Tri-HD service has over 240 channels, showing everything from (sanitized) Pre-Cataclysm movies and television shows to documentaries to propaganda to 'educational' shows to live broadcasts of CS Senate proceedings. Average median wage is roughly 1,500 credits a month, with minimum wage being a solid 1,000 credits per month, adjusted for Area Cost of Living Adjustment Rates. Cost of Lifestyle Disenfranchised: 0-100 Low: 100-400 Middle Class: 400-800 Upper Class: 800-5,000 Elite: 5,000+ This is the cost to maintain such a lifestyle, including rent in an appropriate area, food, entertainment, clothing, recreation, electronics, and the like. As base pay for a CS grunt starts at 1,700 credits a month before bonuses, increase in pay due to time in service or specialization, this puts the CS grunt comfortably in the lower middle class range and slightly above average median wage. Estimates put Defense Spending for the CS at roughly 54% Of the GDP, although shadow budgets and black budgets may increase that to as high as 61%. quote:How many people do you think the CS has in total? Also I liked the write up! That means that around FIFTY PERCENT of the population took part in that cluster gently caress. Even if the CS won the war, they'd be finished. They wouldn't be able to sustain the war effort, and afterwards the strain on the population would lead to a collapse. Just look at the strain that WW-II put on England, Germany, the US, and imagine if they'd sent HALF of their population into the meat grinder. No matter what levels of automation the CS had they'd suffer widespread famine, collapse of social services, industry and infrastructure decay, and a host of other problems. So I made extrapolations on population based on typical formula and came out with 22.9 million total. For reference, the population of Europe during the High Middle Ages was roughly 120 million. Any questions or requests for further information before we move into the CS military industrial complex and the propaganda in the CS that's taken what should be a major shining star in North America and turned it into a genocidal monster? Nostalgia4ColdWar fucked around with this message at 14:07 on Jun 21, 2013 |
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Jun 6, 2013 14:07
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Just in case you're not following the FATAL & Friends thread, occamnailfile's Rifts England writeup wrapped up, and my Rifts Africa writeup has started as of Friday. Links to the posts are archived here for England and here for Africa as quickly as Syrg Sapphire puts 'em on up. England and Africa are two books that need heavy rewrite no matter how you cut it. I know the one time I saw it ran out of the books it was a terrible cluster-gently caress of non-enjoyment that we powered through to get back to the regular campaign. Anyway, time for my writeup. And thanks for doing those, ARB.
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Jun 10, 2013 21:25
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Talen_Soti posted:Since they've finally put Chi-town as on top of Colfax, IL, how big of an area do you think that the city and all its suburbs would take up? I ask because I want to set up a test cmapaign to get back into gaming and I want to see if my hometown would be swallowed up or be a burb. http://goo.gl/maps/7DNg2 I always did this oddly shaped circular area, roughly 12 miles across, but I had Colfax as a agro-station built on the ruines that used the existing infrastructure that survived the apocalypse reworked to support the agro-station. Rock Island I believe is in the CS Navy gook (Mine is lent out or I'd check), but why don't we get to that in the CS Military section. Now, there is something we need to address right off the bat. Racial Breakdown of the Coalition States Scientists have estimated that by 2200 the races will be so intermixed there won't really be any race any more, not like we think of it. So, that's pretty much how it comes out. There are some people lighter skinned than others, some darker, some with heavier Asian features, some with less. Most people look more Hispanic than anything, and (like the rulebook says) with the DBees from the Rifts and the grinding warfare that the CS has been under since the Great Cataclysm, racism as we know it has all been transferred to non-humans. Sexism is something that was rampant a hundred years ago, but now is rare within the CS. Advances to the human genome have really evened out the sexes physically, right down to making it so that flatulence has no severe smell, birth control is something that can be turned off and on easily, and the menstrual cycle only occurs when a woman is trying to get pregnant. These genetic changes to the human race are primarily only in the CS territories, although they have spread in the last 50 years to non-CS areas. People in the CS are smarter, stronger, better looking than non-CS people, thanks to genetic tweaking and alterations to the human genome. A CS citizen has +4 stat points to put wherever they want in their ability (Usually in Physical Strength, Intelligence, Physical Beauty, and Physical Endurance/Physical Prowess) and +3% to their technical skills. CS citizens are innoculated and immunized against a wide variety of diseases as well as having their femoral artery attached immune system booster. Due to the long years of propaganda the CS citizen, weirdly enough, gets a +2 on their saves to resist mental domination and mind control, despite non-CS propaganda that they are all weak minded. Contrary to popular non-CS belief, they are not weak minded from all the propaganda and for following the word of the State, but actually are focused and driven people who have often seen the horrors left behind by marauding D-Bees, as well as seen the terroristic attacks on such things as agro-farms, ranch areas, factories producing furniture or cheap food, and the like. This has created a feedback effect where both sides (CS and non-CS for this discussion) do nothing but perpetuate the fanatical view of each other sides. One Kingdom kills some CS patrols, the CS occupies a couple of villages and lines 'insurgents' up against the wall and shoots them after a short field trial, the Kingdom attacks a CS forward operating base, the CS seizes a couple of factories and engages the Kingdom's patrols, and so on and so on. As soon as the first engagement occurs the Coalition States Military High Command pulls out the plans to absorb that territory and begins working on it. After all, the Kingdom has proven itself to be nothing but a haven of lawlessness and anti-human sentiment. And that leads into something that KS, and by extension, people like Erin Tarn don't understand: Planning. The CS has plans for the invasion and defense against every kingdom. Yes, the CS had plans to take over Free Quebec by force, but the government and military of Free Quebec knew about these plans, as they were just part of the massive library of military planning that the CS Military Command routinely keeps updated, practices war games revolving around, and shares with their allies. Yeah, Erin Tarn has 'uncovered' the 'secret CS plans to take over Lazlo' but remains ignorant that those plans cover everything from massive invasion by a superior force from the Rifts to handling an uprising of the Dog-Boys. With that, let's move onward... The Coalition States War Machine When people think of the CS they don't think of the multi-layered civilian population, the agricultural fields, the ranches, the expansive beef/pork/mutton/chicken cloning vats, the quick and efficient police force, the wealth and comfort of the citizenry. No, they think of this.  The Rifts book suffers from KS's viewpoint of the military sending out patrols in four or six or three man teams, never really understanding anything about an organized military. The first thing we need to remember is that the CS has the records and FM's of all the NATO militaries as well as NEMA, that means that they'll have a fusion of the best military tactics from the Golden Age and the Second Cold War. From the Rifts book we soon learn that apparently the CS doesn't do checkin during patrols, doesn't follow up on military intelligence, doesn't have quick reaction forces, or anything along those lines. So not only do we have to rewrite the military itself, but we have to rewrite their doctrine. Now, this is going to make the CS one of the tougher opponents of the CS. I've done extensive armor and weaponry writeups on the Palladium boards, and I'll reprint that data here later. But the big edge, the reason why the CS can take on supernatural opponents and win is because of the highly trained military, use of tactics, and their high tech gear. Megadamage body armor is the duty uniform of all CS troops, with dress uniforms (pictured below) worn only in secure areas and only during official work or political work. Most CS troops below the rank of Sergeant First Class or Lt Colonel don't even keep their dress uniform at their current duty station. Another thing I noticed going through the books is that it looks like the CS is officer heavy. Robot jocks, SAMS, technical officers. Once again points to Sembedia not really understanding how a military works. So right off the bat, let's figure some things out. A UAR-1 Enforcer has, by doctrine, eight people slated as crew-members. The crew is usually a medium grade NCO (E-4 to E-6) with a lower ranking soldier acting as the co-pilot/gunner. Originally the UAR-1 was designed with a communication/ECM/ECCM operator (slated as "Electronic Warfare Crewmember" in older doctrine) but most of them do not have that capacity. (I, personally, recommend that the UAR crew size be buffed up to 3 or 4, but that's up to you). Each robot has four regular crews, since CS doctrine states that six hours is the maximum "non-combat" piloting time for robots and power armor. This gives the armor a "ready crew" at any time, as well as preventing a sniper or lucky mortar round from taking a robot out of service. Additionally the UAR-1 needs at least 2 hours of maintenance a day just sitting in the bay, and 4-6 hours after combat even without armor repair. That requires one dedicated mechanic per 3 robots, but military doctrine for the CS assigns a motor pool size that roughly works out to 3.5 mechanics per 2 vehicles. Most of these are lower ranking, being supervised by upper level NCO's and lower rank officers, with Technical Officers and Warrant Officers mixed in. All work on a robot combat armor or power armor is signed off by the "section leader" in the motorpool. SAMAS armor has three or four pilots per suits, 1-2 mechanics per suit, often with same rules as the UAR-1. SAMS are flight capable, have a lot more minaturization, and more moving parts than a UAR-1 that are susceptible to metal fatigue and vibration. Because of this your average SAMAS suit only requires about an hour of maintenance day when depoted (unless put in storage mode, which is not supposed to be done while based for semi-active duty, only for storage) but a whopping 4-6 hours of maintenance after a flight patrol. (Three experienced mechanics working on a SAMAS after a flight patrol can do maintenance in an hour) Despite the desires of the Military High Command Oversight Committee, the CS military is still infantry and ground troop heavy, with approximately 1 UAR per 25 ground troops, 1 SAMS per 75 troops. The CS military (in 101 PA) is a whopping 2.5 million active service military, but this is divided across the CS Army (1.5 million), CS Navy (750,000), CS Air Force (250,000). What most outsiders don't know is the front line troops are actually only a small fraction of the forces. (Sembedia doesn't understand this. Like a lot of people he thinks that infantry pretty much is autonomous and doesn't need the support infrastructure that is so important to a modern army because he's never really done research) When it comes down to it a single infantryman in non-powered armor has EIGHT soldiers that support him. A SAMAS pilot or UAR crew have TWELVE soldiers that support them, while a Sky Cycle (usually part of the CS Air Force) has nine supporting soldiers. Most kingdoms that try to emulate the CS military have no real understanding, and just having information from CS deserters, which are rarely high ranking, highly trained, or mentally stable. Larsen, of Larsen's Brigade, is an anomoly as he is not only mentally stable, intelligent, and high trained, he's also a deserter from the CS who found himself receiving CS aid (till the Tolkeen War) in return for a non-aggression contractual agreements. Most of the time a kingdom's CS "adviser" was low ranking and deserted for reasons other than the "CS human supremacy" that they claim, but because they weren't recognized for their obvious brilliance and genius. This means that those people don't understand that just putting on the rank of a General doesn't make you a general, a general has decades of experience, years of schooling and training, and nearly holds a PhD in military theory and history. These kingdoms might be sporting armies numbering in the hundreds of soldiers, but they don't have the force multiplies that the CS so ruthlessly trades on. They don't have the constant training that the CS holds. Your average infantryman in two years faces the following rotation: Initial Training. Basic, followed by Advanced Individual Training (Or AIT) in Infantry School, for a total of 6 months. Green Zone (usually Burb patrols backing up the MP's and civilian LEOs, or guarding farms, patrolling the highways and the like) for 6 months Amber Zone (Usually near border farms, factories, farms) for six months. Red Zone (Usually border patrols, posting in border farms or ranches) for 6 months. Amber Zone (More high security areas) For Six Months. Green Zone again. This time the duty is in a secure rear area, and the CS troop sees the best postings that the CS has to offer, usually near where they grew up or ID with. During the last two postings in their 3 year tour they receive extensive psychological oversight as well as therapy if their Red Zone Tour was particularly high threat. During the Green Zone stationing they are suggested to reenlist. This posting system creates high retention numbers, which means the CS doesn't suffer through a high loss rate of trained soldiers. This also means that ALL CS troops not in their first 18 months have their Combat Action Award and experience in combat operations as well as combat drawdowns. All soldiers, from officers to technical specialists to artillery soldiers, undergo the same posting rotation. This also helps weed out those who don't have it in them to be long term career soldiers. With the life extension medical technology available to the CS a person doesn't hit middle age until roughly 80 years olds, and doesn't start suffering the effects of old age until roughly 150 (estimated) as currently the fourth generation of longetivity treatments have just been rolled out and nobody is sure the extant of life extension that 4th Gen offers. The CS military estimates that a soldier could have a career within the CS military from roughly 20 years old to 130 years old, meaning that they are facing a future problem of high ranking officer ranks solidifying. To handle this, in order for a a soldier to advance beyond roughly E-7/O-6 they must be officially crosstrained in other Military Occupation Specialties, as well as serve is a highly diverse range of duties, including working with CS LEO's in medium and high threat areas. This has created some stresses within the ranks between Second and Third "Genners" as Third (and some 4th Genners) see First and Second Genners as "dinosaurs" who get in the way of modernizing the military. Weirdly enough General Cabot is idolized by the 3rd/4th Genners (He's a 78 year old 1st Genner, who is in the physical condition of a 50 year old and expected to live roughly 115 year) as well as General Underhill (A 2nd Genner who appears in his mid-20's despite his late 30's, and is expected to live to 125). Other generals fought against the formation of the CS Navy and CS Air Force, against the inclusion of the Brown Water Navy and the Rapid Deployment Force as well as degraded the weapons and armor section. But, let's take a look, beginning at the top of the military. The Military High Command is directly under Prosek. Headed by General Cabot as the Permanent Secretary, with General Underhill being the Permanent Undersecretary of the MHC. There are 23 members, however the "Joint Chiefs" consist of generals from the CS Army, the CS Navy, the CS Air Force, CS Intelligence, CS R&D, and CS Law Enforcement, for a total of six in all. Below that are the 15 members of the MHC, with additional members representing Chi-Town City, CS State of Illinios Territory ,CS Missiouri Territory, CS New Chillicothe City, CS Texas Territory, CS Lone Star Territory, CS Iron Heart Territory, CS Iron City, CS Free Quebec Territory, CS Free Quebec City. The final two members are the Sergeant Major the Military (Current Senior Command Sergeant Major McMurphy, a 65 year old 2nd Genner and a huge proponent of robot infantry replacing standard infantry and a bitter rival of General Underhill) and the "Extreme Measure Response" General (responsible for the CS's nuclear, biological, chemical, and radiation arsenal). The final member is a representative from the Military Oversight Committee, a civilian who is nominally supposed to be equal to General Cabot, but in recent years has found himself 'forgotten' to be invited to meetings, and actively locked out of discussions. Despite this members complaints to the Emperor (as well as the Military Oversight Committees complaints to the Emperor) this person has still found themselves put to the side and actively marginalized. The MHC spends a lot of time with planning, meeting with members of the Military Oversight Committee, the Emperor, reps from the various cities and territories, CEOs of major military contractors, and other highly placed civilians. Currently they are overhauling doctrine to deal with the new weapons and armor, as well as closed sessions that the rep from the MOC is not allowed to attend despite their complaints. The MHC sends aides on 'fact finding missions' all the time, touring and examining military bases, checking out how well armor has performed in the field, and getting 'on the ground' information to supplement the official information. Cabot and Underhill's charisma and ability to form extremely loyal relationships have allowed their investigators to get the real deal on the ground rather than the whitewashed reports that the MOC provides. Currently the MHC is trying to wrest their budget from the MOC, as well as their manufacturing and military contracts. The Military Oversight Committee was put in the place by the original Prosek in hopes to give some civilian oversight to the military. While supposedly put in place to act as civilian liasons to the military, the MOC has managed to accrue a LOT of power in the decades since the Federation of Magic War. They handle the military budget, have to authorize military force deployments, handle military expansion and military procurement. Much to the MHC's dismay the MOC has final approval on military contracts, often handing the CS military equipment that has far worse deployment and operational records than what the MHC had approved. The MOC is a hotbed of graft, corruption, cronyism, bribery, and empire building. Every member is at least 60 years old, wielding vast influence throughout the CS. The former military members were often career military that disagreed with Underhill and Cabots vision, or joined at their family's behest to increase their family's wealth. The most extreme examples of the MOC's dealing with graft and corruption are the C-11 rifle and the standard body armor. The C-11 rifle was complete failure across the board and one of the worst weapons in history, while the body armor has changed from highly advanced armor that gave the CS troops an immense force multiplier as well as a high degree of protection, into a poor excuse for body armor that's often called "Body Coffin" or "SABB" (Skull Adorned Body Bag) that constantly is held up by the MOC as "the ultimate in individual protection" and is called a "stripped shell of a concept" by the MHC. Below that is the Military Intelligence Oversight Board, in charge of taking intelligence and spotting threats as well as advising on troop movements. The MIOB has, in recent years, become more about empire and personal power building than about protecting the CS. For the last 15 years a few of the senior agents have allowed information to fly under the radar that resulted in major terrorist attacks in order to embarrass a rival within the MIOB. False flag operations aren't a needed thing when the CS has so many enemies, but allowing information on an imminent terrorist attack on a farming enclave, a small town, a civilian convoy, or a large patrol force to be ignored in order to allow the attack to go through often results in funding increases. The MHC suspects (correctly) that the MOC has been slowly increasing their status and power among the MIOB. Below that we have the top of the chain of command for the Air Force, Army, Navy. While they have difference in their operational planning they were orignally supposed to closely coordinate, but in the last 20 years they have slowly but surely fell into infighting. It started in 78 PA with the CS Navy insisting on having their own ground security forces as well as shipboard security and boarding/amphibious assault forces. The Army was supplying that initially but insisted that the Navy pay for it out of their own budget rather then the Army's. In 87 PA the Coalition States Marine Corps was established in order to take the manpower pressure off of the Army, which was forced to drawdown to only 45,000 active duty soldiers (although the MOC kept reporting the numbers as 1.45 million by misrepresnting the members of half-pay semi-retirement, Home Guard, and Reserves) since 82 PA. The real thumb in the Army's eye was that the soldiers currently working with the Navy were directly transferred over to the newly forced CS Marine Corps (which is under the Navy) while left on the Army rolls, bringing down the real number of active duty troops within the Army to 32,000. The CS Air Force was established in 55 PA, but their lack of operational use during the Federation of Magic Campaign (mostly due to incompetent planners) led to their drawndown from 85,000 troops to 12,000 troops. However in 86 PA the MOC transferred all SAMAS and Sky Cycle forces from the CS Army to the CS Air Force, along with all responsibility for Deaths Head Transports. Again the CS Army was left with the numbers on their own roster, meaning that the 28,000 soldiers transferred over were left on the Army's rolls, reducing the actual numbers of CS troops in the CS Army at 4,000 troops, divided among 8 "divisions" of 500 actual soldiers (while each division had 4,000 soldiers on the record). It took the Army directly appealing to the MHC and the Emperor, presenting accurate reportings of troop strength and equipment listings to get this changed. In 92 PA, over strenous objections by the MOC, all four forces were massively reenforced, numbers were shuffled around, and the entire force underwent a three year restructuring. Mothballed bases were reactivated, vehicles were pulled out of storage, and the military was directly overseen by the MHC as well as the MOC. That was when it was discovered that over 14,000 UAR-1 Enforcers were missing, as well as 9,000 SAMAS suits, and more than half of the vehicles in storage were either counted multiple times, were incomplete, or were made from substandard materials and manufacturing. While no official charges were ever brought forward, this led to even more tension between the MOC and the MHC. The Army is currently composed of 12 Armies. Each Army consists of 5 Corps, each Corps consisting of 4-8 SubCommands, each of those consisting of several divisions. Right now the Army is undergoing a massive buildup that started in 98 PA and shows no sign of slowing down. Soldiers have noticed that the new Abolisher has IFF records for "XM" vehicles that only carry a number designation, which has led to rumors that the Abolisher is just the first of what might be a fairly large revamping of the outdated and old equipment currently fielded by the CS Army. The CS Navy mostly handled old mothballed US Navy vessels (The few advanced naval vessels found by the CS were turned over to Naval R&D and Naval Intelligence) until 94 PA, when newer vessels began undergoing trial phases. The CS Marines also began getting new weapons and armor, rather than having to rely on hand me downs from the CS Army. This has proved to reduce interservice tensions that had been blocking a lot of cooperation between the military services. The CS Naval bases had formerly all been part of the CS Army, but in 97 PA construction began on specialized naval bases, as well as their own training facilities. The CS Air Force had been making due with old F-22 and F-25 jets, as well as F-38 Bombers from Pre-Cataclysm, but these vehicles all had tens of thousands of flight hours on parts that were supposed to be replaced within a few hundred flight hours. The addition of the SAMAS suits and the Sky Cycles from the CS Army was not what the CS Air Force had wanted. They requested Air Force vehicles, and were actually quite angry with being handed all of those vehicles, which they saw more as Air Cavalry vehicles that belonged with the CS Army or the CS Navy rather than the Air Force. The CS Air Force underwent the same crazy expansion, with new bases being built, designed from the ground up to support air operations, despite the desires of the MOC that they continue to use only Army or Navy bases. This means that all "four" services have their own training facilities, although some MOS's have overlapping training facilities. Their own officer and NCO codes, training facilities, and as of 99 PA, their own uniforms. The Navy is primarily concerned with protecting river shipping, patrolling rivers, and guarding shipping in the Great Lakes. Recently (99 PA) the CS Navy has begun patrolling the NE edge of North America. At first those patrols were small, but recent attacks in 100 PA have resulted in the Navy boosting patrol forces as well as laying down the keels for some major ships. By 101 PA the CS Navy has a lot of firepower available but is still shaking down doctrine for it. The Marines, oddly enough, seem to have lifted the majority of their doctrine from the old American Empire Marine doctrine. This resulted in a lot of Marines being dropped back the Army if they did not meet the suddenly increased standards. The Air Force has officially turned back over the majority of SAMS and Sky Cycle forces to the Army as of 99 PA. While the Air Force still has nearly 5,000 SAMAS in service they have been rapidly expanding their standard air power, taking over DEW stations, handling interdiction and recon flights, and high speed recon flights. Most of the CS civilians have no idea how much work the CS Air Force actually does, now that satellites are no longer a thing. Currently the CS has over 30 "AWAC Zones" where there at least 2 AWACS in flight at all times. These planes stay in the air for up to 72 hours at a time, with rotating crews, airplane and SAMAS counter-air patrols, and refueling support. The Air Force does a lot of high altitude recon flights with high speed cameras that can get 1080p resolution ground imaging of the ground from as high up as 20,000 feet and MACH-Three. Imaging from these flights can make out faces in perfect detail and even read bar codes on armor, weaponry, and robot power armor. The Army is what the majority of people think of when they think of the CS. Most of them are unaware that the military isn't just broken down into platoons and that's it. Patrols in high threat areas usually draw from 3-6 different brigades to ensure that air cavalry (SAMAS/Sky Cycle) works with Armored Infantry (Robot and Power Armor) and Mobile Infantry (standard infantry) and Armor (Mark V APC) and Artillery. Most people who "know" about the CS have no idea that the patrol has heavy artillery within a few minutes, from pounding artillery barrages, to laser terminal guidance missiles, to mortar rounds. Currently the CS fields up to 8" artillery with over a 75 mile range (High Velocity Magnetic Acceleration + in flight rocket motors) that can laser guided in at the end, with the small 60mm man portable mortars with 5.5 mile range. This allows patrols at the edge of the CS territory to call down artillery if they find themselves facing massed troops. Common CS doctrine is to use smoke upon encountering the enemy, as the CS military has thermal vision enhancement as well as even the standard armor for the basic infantry having enhanced vision allowing them to see on specific wavelengths that the smoke allows through. This allows them to blind the enemy while being able to quickly manuever to a superior advantage. When smoke isn't deployed it's usually because the CS troops were rapidly able to move into position. CS troops provide fire support for each other, use interlocking fields of fire, as well as are highly trained at quickly taking down and putting up crew served weaponry to increase their force multiplier. Let's take a break here. Any questions? 
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Jun 11, 2013 00:13
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So no comments or questions? I don't really want to monopolize the thread.  I love the gently caress out of Rifts, and this thread inspired me to start a new campaign set back in 101 PA and only allowing the Core Book for the PC's and Conversion Book One and Sourcebook One for me.
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Jun 17, 2013 07:31
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All righty then, let's take a look at CS Territory itself, along with the CS military bases. First of all, I need to reiterate. RPG books themselves suffer from severe lack of understanding how civilizations, societies, cultures, and the like spread. Most of them have never used or even know about the formula to determine population expansion, or understand that population vs resources is not a straight line graph. Most of them picture resources vs population like Malthus, who did not take into account technological advancement would create new resources, make resources go further, or replace old resources with new ones. Most people look at post-apocalyptic populations and run from 100 years since the cataclysm and only put a population at a few million after 100 years (roughly 5 generations, although after a disaster it is estimated that generations would run at the 15 year marks) with a starting population of 250,000. In reality, 250,000 after 100 years with 20 year generations and a growth rate of 3.9% would result in a population of 12.5 million after 100 years. A good way to see just how terrible RPG's can be when computing growth rates, technology upgrades, and the like, is to take a look at 1E, 2E, 3E, 4E Forgotten Realms, where apparently the population growth index, with healing magic in the mix, and a High Medieval period, is a horrifically low 0.02%. Plus there's the distribution/profit curve to look at, and blah blah blah. (Hey, blame 2 years of college) So, we'll take a good look at the CS. Now, we'll steal the map from Alien Rope Burn's excellent writeup of Sourcebook One.  Now, look at all that territory, and you can see I made a serious mistake with the population estimate, so I'll revise them in the previous post. While Sourcebook One states that the CS has 14 million people, that's still barely anything. Really, it is barely anything when we're talking that massive amount of territory. Sembedia talks about how there's like 1 person per 100-300 square miles, and that's just retarded. Now, the CS has had a full CENTURY of expansion, and that's a lot of time. Take a look at the Midwest and Western US expansion and urbanization between 1850 and 1950 and you'll get an idea. Now, the CS had to contend with monsters, bandits, rifts, ley-lines, and all the rest, so that's pretty much the whole reason why it isn't the Coalition States of North America, but within their territory we're looking at a secure area, a loving powerhouse capable of smashing the living poo poo out of anyone who comes at them. The whole territory shown in that image isn't CS territory, but a LOT of it is. Within the CS towns, cities, and burbs are protected by high tech walls. Think Judge Dredd Megacities. These walls, once again, contain point defense for artillery and missiles, anti-aircraft missiles and energy batteries (far stronger than you'd find on even a robot, we're talking tracked vehicle weaponry or battleship class weaponry), rapid deployment SAMS forces and Air Cycle forces, as well as having a garrison that probably consists of anywhere from 2.5%-25% of the population. There are over three dozen military bases within CS territory. The older ones are Army bases, many of which are built on the skeletons of old American Empire military bases. Each of these military bases house at least a division of troops, with 26 of them hosting two to four divisions. Each military base has at least 1 airfield capable of landing the CS equivelent of a C-5 Galaxy cargo jet, as well as handle multiple Death's Head Transports at the same time. Surrounding those military bases are small towns that first grew up providing services to the CS troops, mostly civilian luxuries as well as more grey market items. Over time (often in as little as 20 years) the little sparse settlements have grown to full blown cities. This provides the budding city with heavy defenses, military protection, as well as priority defense status. Most of the civilian industrial expansion that took place between 45 PA and 85PA was centered around these military bases. Six of the cities have populations measured in the hundreds of thousands of registered CS citizens, with often double that of "temporary visa" citizens on a highly restricted citizenship card. In the last 15-20 years urban blight has hit some of the cities, with the CS citizens that were more affluent fleeing to the suburbs and pushing the low income out in a gentrification process that has resulted in more than a few urban cores being home to mutants, lawless gangs, and "reliable" DBees. The newer bases, mostly Air Force, Navy, and Marine, have smaller communities around them, usually only 10,000-25,000 people. These bases underwent massive expansion in the 90's, and some (such as Navy or Marine bases) are still in the process of being built. The smaller bases, still under construction, often only have the construction crews, their families, and those who are looking to provide goods and services to the incoming soldiers or the construction crews. Large retailers, fast food chains, convenience store chains, and the like have already come in, using the population vs profit mapping algorithms to ensure that they have the premier real estate as the city grows according to the Department of Interior planning and their own database analysis. Some areas within the CS are industrial areas that have walled cities built up around them. Most of these were pre-Rifts "turnkey" operations or large industrial complexes built during the Second Cold War, when America had to move its defense industry from overseas and multiple contracts spanning multiple multinational corporations and move back to CONUS industrial areas. During the Second Cold War this was responsible for rapid industrial expansion, but due to heavy robotics use and AI improvements phasing out the majority of the population. This assisted the post-apocalyptic rebuilding as an entire factory that made clothing could be run with replacement of the fuel rods (easily taken from old combat robots) and firing up the facility, which then would need to be overseen by a maximum of five people. (CS law states that even fully automatic factories must be supervised by 10 living humans, with a full security detachment, to prevent terrorist strikes involving everything from software reprogramming to add cyanide to baby formula to blowing up the factory) High speed trains, with multiple rails, is used for both civilian and industrial transport, as well as transport of heavy military equipment. It is common for a CS citizen to see a train laden with UAR-1 combat robots, Mark-V APC's, Abolisher robots, and other military vehicles at least once a week. Three rails move from CS Core to CS Lone Star and five rails move from CS Core to Free Quebec. Currently, CS farmland could support 235 million people, cattle ranches could provide the necessary meat for over 145 million people's daily diet, nutrient farms could support another 450 million, however much of the produced wheat, soy, genetically engineered corn, and other former nutrient crops are actually used for industrial applications. (Organic superlubricant needs to be grown in a soy infused suspension liquid as well as fed a steady diet of soy based protien) Currently, the entire CS agriculture system not only provides the entire CS with food, but ships food to surrounding areas, as well as ships to Europe for use by Triax, who's farmland had been severely depleted by rising sea levels, the coming of the Rifts, and the war with the gargoyles. All right, so we've got the rebuilt CS. A vast military-industrial juggernaut, with a highly motivated civilian populace, a dedicated career military, heavy industry, and a wide range of food sources, synthetic and ethanol based fuels, and soy based plastics. So, where does that leave the PC's? Either working for the CS, or in the dangerous world outside the CS.
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Jun 21, 2013 14:05
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Now, by Popular Request: Rock Island Arsenal CS Territory. In 2078 the US military had decided to upgrade the Harbinger Total Infantry Combat Suit (Now referred to as a "Glitter Boy", although the Harbinger was vastly different then the NEMA Chromium Guardsman) to the A5 version, which improved the accuracy of the rail gun system, improved armor and endo-skeleton density while lowering weight, increased pilot survivability for "Total Extinction Scenario" situations, increased the ECM by 11% and the ECCM by 18.7%, as well as miniaturized and improved the accuracy and fire control of the the leg mounted SRM system and the point defense system. This required the US military to upgrade their existing arsenal of 50,000 suits of Harbinger armor (Which included National Guard, Reserve, and storage suits) as the new systems were no longer compatible with the existing suits, which had undergone Service Life Extension Program upgrades for over 30 years. (Now, if you think this is too long, remember that the M1 went into service in 1980, and is currently being upgraded to the M1A4 version with another 10-20 years of life expected) Rock Island Arsenal was publicly one of the larger military museams, containing everything from the prototype SAMAS to early runs of the Harbinger, to the Bulldog, the Abrams, the M22, and the ZSU-23. By 2098 it had extensive outdoor exhibits, VR simulations, and indoor exhibits showing off military systems from World War One all the way to the 2096 Congolese Insurgency. Tens of thousands of people visited the museum every year, figuring the existence of the military guards were just to guard what was powerful military grade equipment. When the Coming of the Rifts occurred, the rising river and rampaging floodwaters wiped out many of the buildings on the edge of the island, but left not only the museum, but the factory complex that produced parts for the SAMAS railgun system and flight systems remained intact. In approximately 15 PC (Post Cataclysm) survivors had built up a heavily defended facility, relying on the refurbished military weaponry that had been on display at the museum. However, in 19 PC a industrial leak in ruins further upriver poisoned the water badly enough with colorless, odorless, and tasteless chemicals that within 4 days everyone within the facility was dead. The site sat usused for a long period of time, until sometime during the Dark Ages the forces that later became Chi-Town seized the area, began bringing the factories back online, as well as building additional industrial facilities and the first slips for building small river patrol boats. This required engine manufacturing, MDC polycarbonite resin, and other required materials to build high tech military water craft for the then fledgling CS "brown water" Navy. During the Federation of Magic attack and the following insurgent war the naval production facilities came under heavy attack by dragons backed by mortal mages as well as psychics. However, a junior lieutenant managed to rally other boat crews and defend the island from the river, using the onboard weaponry systems. Despite the loss of 2LT Irma Edelson and most of the boat crews (who took 30% KIA and 70% WIA), 65% of the shipyard facilities, and 45% of the industrial facilities, the work force and R&D researchers suffered less then 8% casualties, which the CS thought as far more important than the loss of physical facilities that could be rebuilt. As of 101 PA the CS used Rock Island Arsenal as a facility to build brown water naval vessels, naval cybernetic conversion, Rock Island Naval Hospital, refit smaller vessels (Destroyer class), as well as manufacture naval components and munitions. The island has no civilian populace, with everyone working there either military or their dependents. The island has 11 drydock facilities (with 3 being built for Cruiser class vessels), 32 dock facilities, 2 Marine Corps training facilities (amphibious assault course, ship boarding training & navy cyborg), 2 Navy training areas (sensor systems, fire control, engine repair, and nuclear reactor maintenance), as well as manufacturing facilities for naval cyborgs, a military hospital with a top rated burn and trauma centers, as well the CS BUDS facility. (Basic Underwater Demolition School) The island's manufacturing facilities as well as the hospitals and dependent housing use a positive pressure air system, with a genetically engineering bacteria pumped through the air that is magically active (high levels of PPE that are actually only a fraction of a mechanical point) that prevents magical surveillance and reconnaissance. The island has Defense Early Warning stations capable of tracking thousands of targets from hundreds of miles away, with millimetric phase radar arrays capable of ground mapping. The missile defense batteries are extensive, as are the naval defenses. Underground are shelters able to shelter the entire population of Rock Island for up to 14 months, climate controlled storage facilities that hold high value manufacturing materials, stockpiles of secure ship components, cyborg components and chassis, ship weapons, and Marine Corps equipment, in addition to food and medical supplies. This is not only in case of the supply lines being unable to restock Rock Island, but in case the Island is completely cut off and under long term bombardment. In case of supply line disruption the naval facilities on Rock Island are still capable of repairing ships damaged during the conflict. The entire base is currently under the command of Major General Doretha Hennessy. The Marine Corps training facility is under the command of Lieutenant James O'Brien, the active duty Marine Corps forces and basing is under the command of Lieutenant General Sheba Dallison, the Active Duty Naval Forces and basing are under command of Admiral Sean Gattleson, while the Naval training facility is under command of Rear Admiral John Stanford. The entire surrounding area is patrolled by experienced and highly trained operatives, including UAR-1 Enforcer crews, SAMAS pilots, infantry ground troops, and mechanized infantry. They keep a "no unauthorized personnel" policy within 20 miles. The "no-fly zone" extends out slightly further, and any non-CS aircraft within 100 miles are engaged and shot down without warning. Nearby ley-lines are heavily guarded, with motion sensor auto-turrets, land mines, and company sized garrisons. Additionally, as CS robot power armor and power armor suits are rated for underwater use, the river bed is heavily patrolled by robots packing 'green frequency' lasers and torpedoes loaded into the missile launchers. Fully taking up Sylvan Island is a heavily reinforced military base that caters to 3-67 Armored Cavalry Battalion, which handles the UAR-1s, Abolishers, as well as the SAMAS pilots. This post, nicknamed "Gravel Pit" or "Riverbank". As of 101 PA it appears that the entirety of 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force has been rotating through Rock Island Arsenal in Battalion level force.
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Jun 21, 2013 15:43
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Sure, feed me all the information you want to, and I'll go full 'conspiracy theory' on the Island and make it into something more akin to the Rifts game I usually run. We'll go with superscience (2090's extrapolation), Second Cold War insanity and paranoia, hidden military testing site due to 'transparent government' agendas, and more. Hell, I can even do a threat lurking in the depths of the "Golf Class Hard Site" that the CS has woken up. Right now I'm doing a write-up on "the Subway", the pre-Cataclysm high speed underground rail system. I'll probably finish it all tomorrow, today I gotta hit the VA. Nostalgia4ColdWar fucked around with this message at 17:18 on Jun 21, 2013 |
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Jun 21, 2013 16:59
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I wish I could put up the section from one of the early Dragon Magazines with a Gamma World section called "The Subway", which was an excellent resource. OK, Number One, I did not create this I flat out stole it. The Number One Rule in RPG's is "Steal whatever you can", and I do NOT claim credit for this idea, that credit goes to Gary Jaquet, original author. One of the main things that Sembedia lost sight of was that Rifts is, from the Core, a post-apocalyptic setting. Sembedia seems to have largely lost focus on the "Fall of Man, most of the world deserted, with exploration taking place as people begin to look beyond their community" that I always felt was a core part of early game-play. So, in the race to put out high megadamage rule of cool creatures that they played "nuh-uh your attacks bounce off" playtesting with, they kind of left behind what Rifts Earth would have in its corpse. There was the Golden Age of Man, an 'era of unprecendented scientific and technological advancement' that Sembedia doesn't seem to do much more than use to justify kickass robots. Let's change that, shall we? So, with that, I present: The Subway. By 2032 oil prices had risen to over $3,200 a barrel and cargo/industrial transportation was on the ropes. The days of zero-inventory systems were over, and consumers were unwilling to pay the price for shipping from overseas factories. While many thought the world governments would license nuclear reactors for the proposed "Gigacargo Ships", the destruction of Albuquerque New Mexico, United States, by a nuclear device built by a rogue nation and the melt-down of the Liberian registered Star of Malduna super-cargo vessel's reactor in Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, meant that no nation was willing to trust a corporation (or many of the world nations) to possess reactors onboard ships. This meant that cargo couldn't be shipped in cheaply by air or ship, which meant the global industrial web was already starting to retract, with more and more nations returning to producing goods locally, and only major shipping moving such cargo as crude oil or strategic minerals. High seas piracy was a trillion dollar a year business, with Letters of Marque being reissued to commit economic warfare on the high seas. In 2035 Litton Energy Research made a major breakthrough in micro-fusion plants, these plants being roughly the size of a small compact car, but putting out enough energy for a major vehicle. While it was mostly used by the US Navy to replace the aging fission reactor designs. America was in need of a way to ship goods quickly and easily across the country. With ecological concerns being highly placed, since the Albuquerque Incident, Global Warning finally starting to turn around, and the Mississippi Delta Disaster following Hurricane Douglas, ecological groups immediately tried to stop the use of the He3 reactors. However, the use of fusion reactors to power steam turbines in order to power large vehicles was seen as a national security issue and the lawsuits put in place by the ecological groups were tossed out due to political pressure. In order to avoid large problems with the proposed high speed rail system, the system was decided to be placed underground, following the old Interstate system that had largely been defunded and fallen into disrepair. Initially the plan was to use existing rail infrastructure, but it turned out that the rail system had been largely defunded, the private corporations that had taken them over having moved onto other things that did not use fossil fuels. Underground allayed concerns about children or vehicles getting in the way of a train that was proposed to move at over 200 mph. By 2052 the main arteries of the underground rail system were finished and the government began building the capillary systems. Despite an attempt by several corporations to force the government of the United States to privatize the 'subway system' the lawsuits were thrown out and the use of the fusion reactor design was not available to be licensed to civilian contractors. The work was largely done under the cover of "Interstate Revitalization Program" and largely featured the Army Corps of Engineers doing the work. The tunnels themselves are 100m to 200m wide, with two to eight magnetic 'levitation' strips allowing two trains to run simultaneously, and allowing switching to prevent collisions. The shell is constructed out of duralloy, with radiation shielding (including EM frequencies) and built to withstand any possible detonation of the engine's fusion reactor (a safety procedure insisted on by the NEC) so that any explosion will not damage the surrounding area. For the most part the tunnels are built 20-50m below ground. The tunnels have access points every kilometer to the surface. These access points are ferrocrete squares raised roughly six inches above the ground. In the middle is a circular plate (originally painted yellow and black stripes but since the Great Cataclysm those paint stripes have worn off) with a bar in the middle. Grabbing the bar, lifting it, giving it a 180 degree turn, and pushing it back down (a familiar thing for Rifts Earth adventurers) will sound a siren and a verbal warning to get back at least 10 feet, and a 30 second countdown. At the end of 30 seconds the plate will open, revealing a larger than man sized tunnel down with a rung ladder on one side and strip glow-lights on the other. The tunnel is large enough to allow a person wearing full environmental to climb up and down. If the tunnel beneath the plate is vacuum atmosphere explosive bolts will blow the plate open and there will be audible woosh as the air pressure equalizes. At the bottom of the tunnel is a small 10m x 10m room. This room has racks for four suits of environmental armor, four places for atmosphere recharge, and four racks of eight oxygen packs. There is also an airlock door with the legend "DANGER: POSSIBILITY OF VACUUM, WEAR PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT" painted on it. Due to the damage the system has taken over the years and the Great Cataclysm 99% of the subway tunnels are no longer in vacuum state. These access tunnels have 1km between each one, and are used for emergencies where a train is running the risk of hitting a worker, a worker has run low on oxygen, or the tunnel needs serviced. Every 100km are stations where controls for the trains are done. Subsection control stations Subsection control stations are located every 100 kilometers along the route of the sub-train tunnels. These stations are for monitoring the operation of the sub-train system and also function as repair depots for the section of the tunnel they control. These control stations were largely manned by one or two men as robots and automation handled as much as possible. They were used to manually control switching, tunnel repair if necessary, and maintenance. Each station consists of the following parts: 1. Elevator - The elevator in the control station leads to the surface (the surface entrance to subsection control stations is detailed later). The elevator is operated by a simple up/down pushbutton control panel, located within the control room. Normally, Pre-Cataclysm, the surface entrance for the control stations are ferrocrete cinderblock buildings, surrounded by duralloy chickenwire with concertina wire on top. However, most of the buildings are long gone, have been transformed into buildings for other uses. By and large the computer systems in the cinderblock buildings are long gone, destroyed by volcanic ash, or scavenged for other purposes. With the power having failed on the surface, the buildings were almost useless. Access to the subway system through these buildings would require aventurers bringing in power (a robot combat power armor generator and cables would work) to connect to the wiring beneath the floor to provide power to the floor panels to retract and the elevator. The 10m x 10m plates on the floor at 1/4" thick, and the building is 30m x 30m and 90 of those plates. These duralloy plates would bring 1,500 cr each for sale on the black market, but may go as high as 3,750 cr each to someone in need of them. Seeing as these plates are commonly used on frontier town walls, these plates can be in high demand if the PC's haul them off. 2. Control room- This main room of the control station contains a long, L shaped control console beneath the macro-plast windows facing the sub-train tunnel, with seats for three operators that are rarely used. There is a 2m gap between chairs where usually robots are plugged into the system. This console is normally used only for monitoring the operation of the sub-train system, but can, if necessary, override any system function or operation within the section it monitors. The console is very complex as a whole, but individual banks of controls are fairly simple - one bank of switches may operate the lighting system in the tunnel near the station, for example. Another may operate the doors to the maintenance equipment storage area, and so forth. On the other side of the room from the control console is a large table-like object, the system status display. This device illustrates, by means of colored and flashing lights, the positions of all trains in the system, their rate and direction of travel, destination, etc. Beneath the light representing each train is a symbol code for that train that could be used to call up further information from the main control console. Attached to the wall near the elevator door is a small blue case with a large white cross on the cover: a first-aid kit. The cover is hinged and is held closed with a simple latch. Inside are 5 RMK kits (needing recharged), 4 IRMSS kits, 2 Emergency Trauma Cradles, 10 pain reducers, 10 stim doses, 3 cur-in doses, 5 Med-X, 1 dose of anti-radiation serum, and 1 can of dressing spray (an antiseptic spray-on "skin" that stops minor bleeding, promotes healing, and protects the wound). Attached to the wall below the first-aid kit is a fire extinguisher. It sprays a dry chemical powder and is good for 15 seconds continuous operation. 3. Maintenance area locker room –If necessary for a human operator to go into the sub-train tunnel itself, he would of course have to prepare for vacuum conditions. In this area are three lockers, each containing a special vacuum suit. These suits are modified Department of Transportation Plastic Man and contain life support for 72 hours, 2-way radios for communication with other operators in suits and with the control station, a medi-kit, ultraviolet and infrared sensors, and a powerful tight-beam light mounted on the helmet. The suits are powered for up to 72 hours of operation by a hydrogen energy cell. When replaced in the lockers after use, the suits were automatically recharged (both power and life support) within 30 minutes. Also in this area is a robot-recharging station, a rather complex control panel at which a robotic unit can plug itself in to recharge. There are 4 maintenance robot cradles in here, which may or may not be full. 4. Maintenance area - A garage-like area for storage of a personnel carrier and two maintenance-equipment carriers. The track for these vehicles leads from the tunnel across a platform and into the maintenance area through two heavy doors. These doors may be opened by controls in the maintenance area itself or from the control room. The maintenance area contains equipment to repair up to 30 km of the tunnel (one bored crew in 2065 built 25 km of usable tunnel by hand in 3 months), including several thousand 10x10m plates of duralloy, and tens of thousands of credits worth the Pre-Rifts computer and electronic equipment. There are also a dozen maintenance robots in charging/maintenance cradles. These robots have onboard welders, grasping claws, fission cutters, anti-radiation spray, and other tools necessary to perform maintenance work, up to and including a full tunnel section rebuild. At the far end are large tanks holding roughly a thousand gallons of each of the following: Liquid He3, Liquid Nitrogen, duralloy softening agent, and duralloy hardening agent. 5. Personnel carrier bay - This large bay, 30m x 100m, contains ten Personnel Carriers, each in a charging station for the backup batteries. There are the spare parts here to built 5 more carriers, but no frame components. A small vehicle resembling an enclosed 20th-century golf cart. The personnel carrier will hold three persons dressed in full maintenance suits with a 2m x 2m cargo area, complete with strap tie-downs. It operates on the same principle as the sub-trains (superconducting electromagnetic propulsion). Controls are simple: forward and reverse, speed, direction change (for "Y's" in the rail system), and lights. Mounted on the dash of the vehicle is a removable portable control unit used to command the engineering robots. These carts use Lithium-7 batteries, however age has rendered the capacitance gel inert and they will not hold a charge. Maximum speed of these vehicles would be up to 100km/hr on open track, but age has debonded some of the filaments and it could make a maximum of 15km/hr at this time. 6. Maintenance carriers Bay- These bays are 50m x 200m, with charging bays, one rack of maintenance robot bays on the right and left walls each. These bays contain 12 maintenance robots normally, but many of the substations have no maintenance robots left as they were used up trying to repair the catastrophic damage to the system. Aside from that there are 10 maintenance carriers in these bays. These small train-like vehicles consist of three sections. The forward section resembles an open personnel carrier with an engineering robot at the Controls. Behind this section is an enclosed cart for carrying materials and equipment, and behind that is a similar cart which is not enclosed. The enclosed cart contains small tools and parts; the open cart can hold large structural repair materials and a small boom and winch. Surface entrances to subsection control stations ground-level entrances to control stations along the sub-train route will be found directly above the station, generally near a rebuilt ferrocrete Interstate Highway (as mentioned earlier, the sub-train system usually follows beneath the highway). The entryways were lifts that raised the train up, but for the most part these lifts are either filled with dirt and volcanic ash or are empty with the aboveground section ruined and unable to be opened. These entryways were not used on a daily basis the robots that operated the stations usually stayed around the clock, and when it was necessary to leave the station (for maintenance or other purposes) they used the personnel carrier in the tunnel itself. However, when a human operator was required in the station (for periodic check-outs, maintenance of robots, etc.) the surface entrance was generally used. The surface entrance is a simple structure with an adjacent vehicle parking area surrounded by a chain-link fence. The gate in the fence would open by radio signal from an authorized vehicle and close automatically after the vehicle was admitted. The entrance structure itself is a small, square building made of light metal alloy. The doorway to the entrance structure would open with use of a blue Code II maintenance ID. Inside the structure is a small room (3 meters by 4 meters). In the room is a desk and filing cabinet. On the desk is a communication console that connects with the main sub-train centers and the sub-section control station below. In one wall is another doorway, the elevator to the station. The elevator requires a special sub-train systems worker ID or a Code 4 law enforcement ID to operate, or may be operated from the station below (after clearance through the communications console). Control of the elevator is by a simple up/down pushbutton panel as described earlier for the subsection station control room. Main section control stations Main section control stations (not used in this adventure) are merely larger sub-section control stations. They would be found in the sub-train system wherever tunnels intersect or branch, to monitor and control switching procedures and further monitor all subsection control station operation within their section. Entry/exit control stations Entry/exit control stations (not used in this adventure) are similar to main section control stations, but they control the entry and exit of sub-trains into or out of the system for loading and unloading. Such stations would generally only be found near population centers. Sub-train master control centers (not detailed here) are the overall control and monitoring centers of the entire system. There were twelve control centers in North America, each supervising roughly an equal share of the overall system. OK, now for the big question... WHAT THE HELL DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH RIFTS? Well, Rifts is about exploring the unknown, with threats from beyond space and time, but half of the fun was always finding some old facility from Pre-Rifts tims. Places like The Subway give a hint to the ancient high tech that is still nearly magic to the residents of Rifts Earth. The technology used in The Subway is beyond Rifts Earth capabilities, with much of the larger and more complex equipment built in the Zero-G manufacturing facilities or the Micro-Gravity stations in places like Tycho Prime. We all know Rifts Murder-Hobos are worse than D&D ones, they will steal EVERYTHING, up to and including dirt if they think it has any kind of value what so ever. For the most part the vast underground high speed cargo system is destroyed. Only 1-10km sections are left scattered around North America, many of them the smaller tributaries. But you have to remember, Pre-Cataclysm Earth was in the middle of the Second Cold War, and the MCTS was built tough. It was designed to handle multiple nuclear impacts, to act as secondary shelters, places to pre-stage recovery equipment, and the entire scenario bits. While there was no real warning, the Cataclysm took hours, days, weeks, months to carry through. Rapid Deployment elements would have immediately moved into the MCTS quickly, and the characters can find anything from train cars full of body bags (full or empty), food, Harbinger Power Armor, Goblin IV Power Armor, M47A6 Main Battle Tanks, or even nuclear weapons and launch systems for strike back capability. Of course, the PC's are probably going to strip this place to the ground, but a good thing to do is to make it obvious that these places contain rare Pre-Rifts maintenance stations for robots, power armor, and armor. I've also allowed them to find and clear out and then keep military substations in order to use them as bases, or just loot the living poo poo out of them. The CS keeps an eye out for any scavenger teams who come back with MCTS parts. They will bypass the black market and directly approach the PC's with fair deals. Mainly because the computer systems used for traffic control can be used for land based fire control systems, giant combat robot piloting and fire control systems. All right, next up we'll mess with some other stuff. As you can see, the old Gamma World Stuff can work great. Next Up: The Legion of Gold and Famine In Fargo (GW 1E Modules) and how to weave it into the campaign.
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Jun 23, 2013 10:08
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The Legion of Gold This was one of the first modules for Gamma World, and was a HUGE deal. It contained expanded loot tables, rules for different caliber and condition fire arms, gave us our first settlement, and pitted tribesmen against an ancient threat from the mists of the past against the world. If you are familiar with The Legion of Gold, you'll see a LOT of parallels between it and the first Fallout game, as well as Fallout Tactics. We're not talking the newer one (I'm unfamiliar with it) but this one from the bad old days of conflict/adversarial RPG gaming. There are 4 sections that as a GM you may want to work into your game. The first is the City of Horn, which you should put out of CS territory. Now, because of certain realities of where things are I would recommend putting the entire things either on the North Carolina coast or one of the Great Lakes. The City of Horn will need updated. Sure, right now there's no MDC Rifts gear in there, but it's easy to arm the guard with knockoff armor and cheap power armor, and it is the center of a barony. Having the place be borderline "no mutants" and hardline "no mutants" and having the Baron of Horn trying to court the CS, that puts some serious time pressure on the PC's to find where the Gold Legions are coming from, since they are making the Baron look bad. Or, you can ditch the module except for the subaquatic research station, the shelters, and the Legion of Gold HQ. Let's handle the Shelters first. Now, it talks about 2300's and blah blah blah. I know that those are WAAAY too small to be fallout shelters, much less livable for 10 years. You'd have people go mad inside of a week, and your first murder by week two. So there would be notes on the half-fried computers that these were emergency shelters for common people, intended to last only 24-72 hours, until the occupants of the shelters could be moved to large facilities. BUT, we're going to do something different. BACKGROUND AKA poo poo ONLY THE GM CARES ABOUT With the Second Cold War going on one of the major problems that were tackled by the DoD were soldier survivability. The Harbinger, Goblin IV, and Novastar VII power armor systems meant that the power armor pilots could survive, arguably even inside the nuclear fireball (For the Harbinger, that was a verified fact after the Congolese Nuclear Incident of 2067 and the fact that the armor systems stationed at the Albuquerque power plant survived the detonation as did the pilots) which meant the big problem was logistics and most of all repair and refit. So the military knew that they'd have people to perform search and rescue on any people who managed to get the shelters. However, the ley-line explosions made it so that barely anyone got there, and those that did, well, they couldn't unlock the door (because they didn't want people to suddenly panic and run outside) and they eventually killed each other, committed suicide, or eventually starved to death. So the shelters should be found at least 2 miles from an old ruin, preferably near an old Interstate Highway, and by and large were forgotten. The only corrections to make is that the fission micropiles, if they are intact, are worth approximately 1.5 million credits. But by and large, it's just a little fun thing for them to find. Stock them will old junk, lovely loot, or just weird stuff. Last time I used them, a gang of thrill kill hoverbikers were using them as a base to kill people on the CS Highway. SAMURI OK, this is the best place ever. Personally, I added in the Andriod Rebellion of 2072, meaning that Androids are out there, just haven't been seen since the bitter 2 year war that destroyed most of them. Players have never heard of androids, so finding this base was a huge shocker, and eventually led to the Fallout Tactics based adventure, where Androids had taken over the original NORAD and were finally leaving in order to take over a weakened North America now that they could survive and avoid the ley-line energy. I added Glitterboys guarding it, both of them with depleted reactors, and of course, it was the party's first encounter with the mil-spec Harbinger suits, and they moved hell and high water to recover those suits. Making the place low-MDC or just high SDC made it so that battles were short, sharp, and with hand weapons rather than rail guns and projectile weapons. I can do a full writeup, but you're getting the idea. ----- Legion of Gold is good for starting characters, even if you have a GB, a dragon, 2 SAMAS pilots, a ley line walker, and a full conversion cyborg. By modding the creatures you can do it several ways. My two favorite ways is to either have the PC's being CS investigators to the city of Horn to see about their absorbtion by the CS, or have them being freelancers who get involved and end up, at the end, finding a high tech military bunker. I personally extended out the map of the Legion of Gold HQ to be a six level deep massive place, with killer robots and all of that fun stuff. I really recommend getting this module and converting it to Rifts, since it's a lot of fun. ---------- FAMINE IN FARGO Of course, this module assumes that the PC's are semi-retarded murder hobos sent to save their tribe. That's the Gamma World way, baby. But no, for this one, the players are high tech murder-hobos who find the whole thing and need to clear it out. Why? Because a high-tech chicken processing plant like this, only 20 miles outside of 'official' CS territory can be sold to the CS for hundreds of millions of credits. Now, one thing about Rifts is that credits go FAST if you have robot jocks and cyborgs, because they have constantly pay for ammunition, armor repair, systems refits, all of that. Tell the party they'll want to go in SDC only. Clearing it out is an interesting adventure, but selling it, or becoming Chicken Meal Magnates of Rifts Earth can be just as interesting. It's a good layout for a Pre-Rifts facility taht most GM's would overlook as having adventure potential, as well as letting the players feel like their characters are making a difference in the world. Get the PDF, or find the module cheaply on eBay. I'm not sure how the new one is, but you aren't looking for mechanics, you're looking for the maps, the scenario, and the descriptions. So a PDF off of DriveThruRPG should work just fine. Next up: A little break, and taking a look at an alternate campaign setting around Pitz Burke.
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Jun 23, 2013 11:47
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Let's take a good look at Fallout as it applies to Rifts. Now, Fallout One was really fun and has a lot of stuff that you can adapt to Rifts. The Super-Mutants. Now, I'm not going to spoiler a 20 year old game, so just suck it. We have the Master, the FEV, and the Super-Mutants. You can transfer the whole thing to the Mid-West, preferably in the Ohio Valley. You can have the Super-Mutants have serious MDC and Supernatural Strength, and have them be an interesting threat. They have Ancient Amerikan Empire gear, including what is normally crew-served or vehicle mounted weaponry, they are appearing more and more, and are starting to intrude on CS space. The Brotherhood of Steel could be a weird techno-religious order, that searches out these old military bases that are hidden away in order to find the best of the tech. We need to decide why these bases weren't looted, and a really fun way is to go with the old 80's conspiracy theories. These bases were built by the DoD and kept off the books, and wrapped up in FEMAs budget. These bases are completely hidden, out of the way, underground. There are no records of these bases outside of the base network. Now, there's something we can add to them that is a lot of fun, but you don't want the BoS to get ahold of it. That's Mat-Trans, and that can lead you to fun episodic adventures. OK, so you plant stuff from Fallout around, and then run the core of Fallout. Having it where 4-6 Supermutants can take on a GB and maybe win makes it extremely dangerous. The PC's can get involved as high-tech murder-hobos as people in the burbs or maybe small towns start disappearing and they start looking. The stuff in the bases is easily sellable to the CS. Hell, you can even have them raised in Vault-13, and just put them in high tech body armor that can't be replicated by the CS because it was all built using Zero-G manufacturing, which gives them an edge and a reason to stay away form the CS territory. Then you have Fallout 2. This is a good game for places outside of CS territory. Hell, you can even leave it where it actually is. Go to the Fallout Wiki and check it all out. Putting Fallout 3 in there as well as Fallout NV makes a hell of a lot more sense than anything KS has written for the region. Even if your players know the plot, just switch them around or add new ones. Steal the places, the people, some of the weapons, and some of the plots, and just wrap it up into a total crap-fest. Fallout Tactics: This game wasn't played much. This can really really work. It's got everything you could want in it, and even handles the "NORAD Problem" that some people have with the game. Now me, I replaced the dumb brains in a jar with even militaristic descendants of the original crew who has decided to "Take back 'Murica!" and reestablish the old US without understanding how the world had actually changed, which led to the players having a nasty fight with SDC weapons in the bowels of NORAD. OK, one thing you might want to invest in is the Gamma World old boxed set. I think it's 3E, with the map to the Allengheny Valley and Pitz Burke. The mutations can easily be adapted, and the settlements are a LOT of fun. I still plan on covering this later, but I gotta find the word doc with all my original work in it. So, now let's move on the next part I want to cover before we get to anything. Orbital Facilities, Satellites, and Communications All right, reading the books it's pretty positive that KS has no drat idea how a radio works. Sometimes I even wonder if he even completely understands how the light bulb, a switch, and electricity all work together. Early on America (and Europe) built repeater towers for signals. You still see it with HAM radio as well as this weird thing I saw using HAM radios and Commodore 64's to create a strange IRC network. Yeah, it existed. Cell towers are WELL within the CS technological curve. Additionally there were plans, in the event of a super-major catastrophe, to use modified C-5 Galazy planes to act as cell phone relay systems to bypass line of sight problems. While that might be unusuable according to our world, think of what the CS could accomplish with a couple dozen Deaths Head Transports up at the 25,000 foot mark, making small circles, relaying the digital data for the cellphone networks with ultra-high speed wireless. So, yeah, near CS territory you would undoubtably have cellphones. Yeah, the Ley-Lines wreak havoc with eletronic signals, but sooner or later someone would figure out a filter to slice that right out. The internet would be there, hell, they'd probably have VR. Just think of this: The CS wants to try mass field trials of new power armor, so they load up all kinds of scenarios, the computer simulation data for the armor, and let neckbeards duke outin the simulation to get an idea of how things work. Hell, you could even see how fast those neckbeards crack encryption by putting a version out there and see how fast it can be cracked. Unlike modern countries, the CS has constant pressure to modernize, update and keep up their R&D. To use an old phase and maul it: "The Coalition States must lead or perish." Sembedia gives us all kinds of reasons that the sats are gone, mostly hinging on the "Killer Sat!" theory, but lets be honest, we all know that not even Soviet brute force tech is going to last 300 years. Solar pressure alone will make sure of that. But let's say there are some left up there. These are going to be mean things, and we'll say there were ones up there that were killer sats from the Second Cold War. These things won't respond to brute force cracking attempts, and there's HUGE complications dealing with a sat. So go ahead and add one in. It's not going to really unbalance the campaign. Geosynchronous ones aren't going to last long, and were probably punched out by the warfare going on at the end of the world, killer sats, solar pressure, debris impact, micro-metorite impacts, and just plain hardware failure. The orbiting ones might last longer. So what about the attempt to launch stuff? Well, the counter-debris ring thing was interesting, but unless something is up there replentishing the ring, it's going to go away. So, why isn't any of it working? Don't bother to answer why. It just is. But how about the orbital facilities? Well, there's plenty of goons on here who could tell you why those things wouldn't have lasted out a year under the post-cataclysm conditions, but lets go with Rule of Cool. Everyone onboard died. Hell, they had to go to their home planet, they caught Space Herpes, or maybe they just all were stuck up there with Twilight on repeat on all the monitors and shoved themselves out of airlocks. But leave them up there. Why? Because of our Mat-Trans. Next Post: Variant origins and wrapping stuff up. Then we'll move to magic. It's time to add a framework to the helter-skelter "Nuh-uh!" magic of Rifts.
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Aug 8, 2013 00:17
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I've been cleaning out my old hard drives. I'm one of those people who just copy the contents of my D: drive to a new drive and don't worry about it. However, I found my old Allengheny Valley conversion for Rifts. It's pretty much core rule book only. Anyone interesting in seeing it? I will warn you, it's from like 1993 or so, and it's a little scattered. Feels more like a future world got hit with a cataclysm rather than the 1980's with MDC got hit with one.
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Jan 23, 2014 23:19
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MASSIVE INCOMING INFO-DUMP! I recently was able to access the Palladium Board again. I got weirdly blocked by the system a few years ago due to what I saw was a glitch, that wasn't fixable apparently. Because I logged onto the forums with 2 different computers from the same IP address, I somehow got a block for 'shadow-duping' or something like that. However, I was able to log in today. Now, I wrote up a SHITLOAD of history on weapons and armor. So, I'm going to repost it all in this thread. BE WARNED! THERE WILL BE LIKE 50 POSTS!
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Sep 28, 2014 02:38
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Hauler, Armored Transport, Cargo, Heavy-CSTV-119 (HATCH) Most opponents of the CS only focus on frontline vehicles. However, not everything is moved by Death's Head Transport. The HATCH is a all terrain wheeled vehicle with an impressive amount of cargo space an a vehicle power-train capable of moving astounding weight. Unlike the combat vehicles, the HATCH does not possess the "death's head" look, but rather contents itself with the standard flat forward face with a sensor strip just below the windshield. It is moderately armored (although light and "up-armored" versions do exist) to survive passing through hazard or combat zones. The vehicle uses the aging but still applicable engine and parts from the Mark-V APC line, lowering production cost by having an already built in large supply of parts and manufactured pieces. The cab is simply a square box with a trailer attachment over the last 8 wheels. The forward part of the tractor is the cab, possessing light ablative neo-alloy armor and a neo-tungsten unibody frame. There are indented "steps" beneath the two doors (one on each side) allowing the crew to easily and quickly enter the cab (one attack action) and shut the door. The trailer has forward stabilization jacks which automatically lower whenever the cab is detached, however this is extremely rare and usually only for maintenance. For the most part the vehicle is treated as a single unified body. The "trailer" section has removable side and rear panels, to allow access to the "trailer", which has holes 2" wide, 4" long, 6" deep to correspond with every square meter of space in the trailer, to utilize standard CS "self-locking pallets". Inside the vehicle possesses the following: Ground radar system: Track up to 12 targets. However, the system does keep track of over 300 other objects, and this data can be relayed to nearby command vehicles to take part in the "missile defense network" of the CS version of BATNI. Low Light (Passive) Imaging: Displays on the windshield Low Light (Active) Imaging: By using the IR capabilities of the headlights the vehicle can display active low-light on the windshield Frequency Agile Burst Communication Radio: The HATCH possesses the FRAGBuC Radio system Standard CS First Aid Kit Armor Integration Cables: Allowing CS armor to be hooked into the vehicle for battery charging, increased communication, and atmosphere replenishment Auto-Pilot: The HATCH uses Auto-Driver 14.5xe2, which at the current time is only capable of point to point navigation, but does not have the problems of the 14.5xd1 software. Inertia Mapper: This, combined with the Ground-Tac system, allows the driver to know where they are down to the meter. With over 600 pre-loaded maps and the ability to have hundreds more created or uploaded, this system allows the driver to not only know where they are, but their surroundings, calculate routes, and avoid hot zones. Crane: The crane is built into the trailer, as well as one at the rear of the cab. Both cranes are capable of lifting up to 15,000 kilograms. Hauler, Armored Transport, Cargo, Heavy-CSTV-119B2 (HATCH) Weight:7 tons unloaded, 257 tons fully loaded Height: 20 feet Width: 15 feet Length: 75 feet (Cab is only 10 feet, tractor is 15 feet, trailer is 60 feet) Cargo Capacity: 14,625 cubic feet, 250 tons Crew: 2, driver and shotgun Weapons: optional ring mounted weapon such as CR-40 MDC by Location Cab body: 250 Bed body: 500 Wheels: 50 Windshield: 25 Doors: 75 Bed side-panels (12 per side, 3 in rear): 75 each. Headlights (4): 15 each Crane (2): 15 Standard Armor Version: Adds another layer of plates, effectively adding 15 MDC to each section.* "Up Armored" Version effectively adds 50 MDC to each location.* *(Tires, headlights, crane, and windshield are NOT effected) DESCRIPTION For those of you who have seen them, simply picture a large Hemmit with ring mount, or perhaps one of the the vehicles off of the old movie Damnation Alley. In essence, a large, blocky vehicle with a box-like cab, two wheels in front, twelve in the back (3 sets of rear dualies) and a long, oblong cargo area that possesses a total of 4 sets of dual rear wheels and a middle set of 2 dual wheels. HISTORY The HATCH vehicle came directly out of NEMA stockpiles, although at that time it was called the HEMMIT-VII. While the HEMMIT-VII used standard non-hyper-alloy chassis and frame, this simply would not due for the CS once manufacturing began to get underway. General Ross Underhill spear-headed the "Fit to Fight '75" program, where the hodge-podge of vehicles used by the CS Logistics Command were intended to be replaced. Lansing Motors showcased the HATCH, which, while fairly bare-bones, impressed General Underhill enough to be awarded a contract to build hundreds of them over a period of 10 years. The initial "prototype" model had it's own proprietary power train, wheel hubs, but when a strike a Chow-Rameriz Machine Industries stopped production on the power trains only six months before the first HATCH's were to be delivered to the CS Army, Lansing Motors frantically scrambled to lay their hands on over 75 power trains and engines. Luckily for Lansing Motors the CS Army was holding a semi-public auction for 125 Mark-I APC's, and Lansing Motors bought them all in one lot batch through a cut-out corporation. They retooled and modernized the engines, most notably replacing the piston sleeves and rings with more modern and expensive materials, then adapted the entire HATCH vehicle to run off of them. The gearing was changed for more power, sacrificing speed for power, and the tires went from spun carbon filament to neo-vulcan synthetic rubber with "Run-Flat(TM)" technology to keep the vehicle up and running even if the tire was nearly shredded. Commanders who recieved the HATCH had nothing but praise for them, although troops using them noticed that the trailer stabilization outriggers had a tendency to hang up or not fully lock into position, risking tipping the trailer while it was being loaded. In 82 PA the 119A came out, fixing the outrigger problem, but the bed manufacturing process neglected to add in the embedded hook points for the loading straps. This led to local commanders fitting wood panels in the bottom until 84PA when the 119A1 came out with the anchor points restored. Sadly, the 119A1 had a problem with substandard ballistic glass from the Hrylex Advanced Materials Lab LLC (which was already in deep trouble for the Macroplast-Gate Scandal of 83 PA). The windshield would often turn completely opaque and white upon a hit from even an SDC laser system, the protective properties completely vanishing as the polyresin matrix completely scrambled. (Windshield would sudden drop to 15 SDC) The windshield problem was fixed by local commanders ordering from local suppliers until 85 PA, when the 119A2 came out. This one caused a total freak out by the command structure as the electrical system often caught fire, burning the entire vehicle to the ground. This was found to be a fault with the grounding system in the cab chassis at branch 17A3-4, and the trailer chassis at ground point 18b-B, which was quickly fixed at unit level. That caused an additional fault, which was electrifying the entire chassis so that anyone not wearing insulated boots who touched the vehicle while it was running received a 150 amp, 824 MEGAWATT shock. This was enough to even damage combat armor, or kill the wearer of light combat armor. The 119A2 vehicles showed an amazing ability to be destroyed in "terrorist strikes" while sitting in the motorpool. Investigation by CS CID showed that there was a coherent plot, obviously by the Federation of Magic, against the HATCH vehicles, because of... um.... FREEDOM! That's it. In 90PA the 119A4 was released. (The A3 version forgot the crane, and the CS military simply refused to accept delivery) to correspond with the all new "self-locking pallet" which the CS had moved to. Wood was getting more and more difficult to harvest cheaply, so the CS military had moved to advanced polymer resin pallets with "locking feet" and standardized sizes. The vehicle at first performed admirably, however a fault in the inertial mapping system caused a resonating buffer overflow cascade inside the autopilot with a wide variety of effect, from the vehicle starting up on its own and driving in erratic patterns, to the vehicle verbally mocking the driver, to in one case, over the period of 4 days, a HATCH hunting down and running over ever member of FOB Churchmouse. The software was replaced, but mysteriously all of the 119A4's had somehow been destroyed in "combat", and the CS military sighed and ordered another batch in 91PA. This proved to be the 119B1 series, which used all new software. This proved a workable vehicle, up until the time that a Boomgun was fired near it, or another loud explosive detonation. At which time the armor would shatter and fall off the vehicle in small (palm sized) pieces, leaving a bare frame, the wiring harness, the engine, and fuel system. Lansing Motors was fined 125 MILLION credits, and had to replace the vehicle at their own expense. Failure to do so would have lost Lansing Motors several other lucrative contracts, and the 119B2 hit the CS Army in Fall Quarter, 94PA. This time the vehicle has proven to be a solid and dependable workhorse, and CS troops have largely forgotten the vehicles struggling past.
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Sep 28, 2014 02:42
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Coalition States "Burb-Sec" CS-4221 "Dogpound" Burb-Sec is responsible for the police effort of the burbs and small CS towns, which means that in many places they are policing an area of hundreds of thousands or even (in the case of the Chi-Town Burbs) 2.5 million.people, with a rough violent crime rate of 2.6% per capita. That doesn't sound like much, until you realize that over 70% of the offenders are repeat or serial offenders. This means dozens or hundreds arrests a day, including "sweeps" that can pick up a few or up to two dozen law-breakers at the same time. When more than what can fit in the standard 'Burb patrol car or dangerous criminals are arrested, they call in a "Dogpound" vehicle. The Dogpound has been in service since 57 PA, and was one of the feared vehicles during the Federation of Magic War, as it was often used to transport EPOW's, as well as transporting arrested mages in the years up to the war. Because of this there are multiple versions of this vehicle. The newer ones are closer to the Chi-Town Burbs, but there's multiple versions within Chi-Town Burbs themselves. For everything from arresting normal people, to mutants, to psions, to practictioners of magic. The initial design of the Dogpound was brainstormed by the Urban Pacification Research Projects Agency (established in 54 PA) and took almost three years of design and testing as well as awarding the contracts for the manufacture of the vehicle. The designer examined detailed records of prisoner transport vehicles, everything from Pre-Cataclysm movies to detailed vehicle manufacturing specifications. The Great Library of Chi-Town was part recovered books, micro-films, video recordings, and computer files, the rest was from what is suspected to be a "Continuity of Government Deep Storage Locker", containing everything from every book ever written (The Google Project) to building and vehicle schematics as well as detailed manufacturing plans and every scrap of knowledge that a recovering civilization would need. This added a lot of technical details to the project, like Pre-Cataclysm police vehicles from all over the world. Unfortunately for the research, one of the popular items for Role Playing and Computer games were technical schematics of fictional vehicles. This set the project back months as they tried to find hard research on anti-gravity and vectored thrust units used in those schematics. In 57 PA the CS-4221 rolled off the assembly line in one of the fabrication plants in Sub-Level 3 of Chi-Town. By Summer Quarter 57 the first hundred were delivered to Net-Sec and Burb-Sec. Thirty of each design (low, medium, high security) as well as ten "Law Enforcement Coordination" vehicles. Problems immediately cropped up that had not come up during field trials the previous year. First of all the light security vehicle had a problem with the door hinges being made from substandard materials. A hit that did more than a light impact would shatter the door hinges, causing the doors to fall off. Additionally the normal vibration of the vehicle's engine would cause metal fatigue in the vehicle's hinges, meaning it was not uncommon for the doors to just plain fall off by Fall Quarter 57. This was usually fixed at unit level. The medium security version had a small problem with the radio mounting, which caused electrical shock to anyone who touched the antenna while the vehicle was transmitting. This wasn't noticed at first, until it became a game with Burb kids to hang small gang or school flags on the antenna. After a series of electrical deaths, and additional grounding post was added and while the original antenna was left in place, the actual antenna was moved to the roof of the vehicle. This caused problems with the Net-Sec uplink disrupting, causing problems with high-bandwidth transmissions. This problem was not fixed until 62PA. The Heavy Security model proved to have multiple problems. Starting with the sheer weight. While in testing this proved no problem, the sheer inertia became a problem in the tight streets of the more dense burbs, as those streets were often covered in trash, debris, and fluids that prevented the front wheel from gaining traction. This resulted in repeated crashes until Burb-Sec rated that the vehicle travel no more than 10 miles an hour within certain areas. After all, it was not a pursuit vehicle, but a prisoner transport vehicle. This problem was finally repaired in 68 PA when the vehicle moved from synthetic rubber to spun carbon "mesh" wheels that actually had superior gripping. In 70 PA the new CS-4221A rolled off the manufacturing line, and were slowly distributed out in a rolling deployment with Chi-Town at the center and receiving the first units. Problems again cropped up, despite the heavy field testing done from 68-70 PA. This was the fault of several different companies. First fault was with the software the vehicle used to help track the vehicle, bring up facial recognition software, as well as countermeasures against various threats. This software was supposed to be legacy compatible, but turned out to use the wrong file headers for requests, resulting in hundreds of false arrests as well as bad call ins. This resulted in the vehicles maintenance sections loading up the old software, however this disabled the inertia mapping system as well as no longer interfacing with the Net-Sec and Burb-Sec officer's armor. The second fault was in the manufacture of the power exchange module for the rear axle, simply put the ring gear in the automatic transmission suffered failures due to substandard parts being used. Unfortunately, nobody also realized that the wear on the ring gear had also contaminated the transmission fluid by creating crystallization in the fluid, destroying the fluid transfer system and the filters. Since the company that made the transmission had gone bankrupt due to embezzlement (That person also arranged for substandard parts) a new transmission had to be designed. This one turned out to have a problem with the transmission cooling system, which was necessary for the medium and heavy transports. Another problem that cropped up was engine overheating, which most mechanics fixed by cutting out two of the filters from the system, which moved the fluid flush and replacement from every 600 hours of use to only every 200 hours of use, but most mechanics flushed and replaced the coolant every week. Failure to do this caused the system to suffer crystallization as well as "fluid fatigue" where the fluid dissipated less and less heat. It was discovered that about the 400-500 hour mark the engine and transmission would heat up enough to cause them to catch fire. Compounding this were a poorly designed set of temperature sensors which were located in the transmission in a place where the fluid would "pool" next to once of the heat exchangers. This problem was rectified in 72 PA by Net-Sec and Burb-Sec gaining permission from the military to utilize SAMAS organic super-lubricant. This organic super-lubricant required not only feeding every six days, but also required "draining" by luring a section of it away before the transmission became over-full and the superlubricant attempted to escape. It was not able to survive outside of high precision, high pressure, high heat environments for long. The Light Security Vehicle was discovered to have a rather terrible problem in 74 PA that led to most units dismantling the vehicle and having it destroyed via high intensity plasma ovens normally used to destroy old Pre-Cataclysm chemical weaponry. The memory metal used in the frame construction to allow the vehicle to be somewhat flexible, as well as the memory metal in the spun wire tires, had been bought from a third party in Nebraska, who had procured the metal and the manufacturing technique from a Pre-Rifts "metallurgical study laboratory" without quite understanding what they actually dealing with. The metal was part of the NEMA Space Program, designed for Mars missions, where resupply would be extremely rare and far between. The company did not quite understand that the "vats of molten metal" were actually advanced nano-forges, that simply required some basic materials (carbon, silicon, iron, and other metals) in order to produce the memory metal. The metal was perfect for the "flexible unibody" that the vehicle was built around, and it took several years for the first major problems to be noticed. The first warning signs were not recognized as such, when mechanics reported what appeared to be "sweating" along frame components, as well as "beading" along major welds in the internal structure. Later "jagged spurs" were noticed along the major structural elements, most of the extremely thick ones. Mechanics began discovering what appeared to be "alloy migration" onto other parts, with an anomaly noticed that on hinges or other moving parts the alloy seemed to adhere to the design. In 72 PA a curious mechanic unbolted a hinge, then cut into the hinge and bolts with first a plasma cutter, then a laser cutter, and finally resorting to a physical "band-saw" precision cutting instrument. This showed the following things: The metal was far above specs for temperature resistance and transmission. It acted as a thermal non-conducting material until a certain threshold was reached, and then within 0.004 seconds became the same temperature across the entire object, usually dropping the temperature of the material significantly. Once the material reached approximately 4,000 C instead of melting the metal began subliming, turning into vapor. This cooled it again through "perspiration". The metal remained in vapor form until it cooled at roughly 88 F, where it became a fibrous metal of micro-hair thin strands. The metal had replaced the material it had at first appearance "coated", leaving no trace of the original material behind in the case of smaller components or components closer to the frame. To thicker components or components farther from the frame, it appeared to have made inroads among the material's natural lattice. The inner "edges" were "Fuzzy looking, almost like felt or tiny strings" which was where the metal was infiltrating the other material. The metal had taken on the "properties" of the material it had infiltrated or replaced, replicating it's flexibility, hardness, tensile strength, and other qualities. Bolts did not show thread wear, apparently the metallic substance replicated the physical function. Later investigation proved that "bolts" had been "loaded" into the metals "memory". More might have happened, but an hour after the investigation happened the mechanic suffered a sudden "heart attack" and died. Autopsy showed metallic "fibers" in his heart, pancreas, liver, brain-stem, spinal cord, kidneys, and lungs. It was later determined that the metal had entered his bloodstream and then located specific organs. The metal then attempted to "replicate" the function, replacing nearly 8% of the tissue mass. However, the way the material attempted to replace the cellular structure was not discovered until it was far too late for many other. The "metal" used was actually the nanite components of a sophisticated "task specific nano-forge" that was originally designed for space station and spacecraft structural and primary components. The metal would be used for the "core" of the component, and that way the "nano-forge core" would then replace the material and replicate the material's properties. As it had to be injected as a liquid into the hollow core, it was then "vibrated" to encourage "growth" in order to replace the part and keep it in top condition. This would help avoid wear, metal fatigue, and crystallization in highly complex or important parts. The metal was also supposed to "grow" into the other parts, allowing a replacement part to be made of the standard material, fitting into worn or broken parts, and the metal replace the part. It was the vibration that caused the metal to begin propagating, along with exposure to ionizing radiation in the form of vehicle reactors. The radiation was the final factor, as many of the civilian and military vehicles in the CS at the time had low grade shielding. That combined with the damage to the Van Allen Belts resulted in higher radiation exposure, much like it was theorized that the surface of Mars would have (based on instrument readings, as well as base readings) at "solar storm" times. The metal infiltrated everywhere, replacing everything from struts to filters to seals. Only the organic super-lubricant was not replicated (both of them were originally designed for the same program), but even then a lot of units kept quiet, assuming that the replication was part of the design of the vehicle. It was only when both prisoners and drivers/guards both began dying from the same thing as the mechanic had, as well as the metal migrating to armor filters, weaponry, and other parts. The frightening thing to the CS authorities was the fact that several individuals who were long term drivers or mechanics had organs replicated. Most of them died, but two were taken to Lone Star Labs for examination. This caused the entire line to be scrapped, all of the light, medium, and heavy security vehicles. The program went back to the drawing board, while the CS military performed a surgical strike on the facility that "manufactured" the metal frame, completely destroying the factory and capturing the workers to be shipped back to Lone Star. The executives of the company were executed after a very showy trial, and the CS used the funds seized from the company in a PR move to pay off those who were killed or damaged by the metal. In 80 PA the next line of vehicles came out, which have largely been unchanged, only minor changes to software, firmware, and armor. Type: Police Prisoner Transport Class: Medium Wheeled Vehicle Crew: 1 driver, 1 gunner, up to 4 "support" officers Prisoner Capacity: 12 MDC/Armor by Location: Main Prisoner Hold: 240 Rear Doors: 20 Cab: 100 Side Doors: 40 Windshield: 20 Headlights: 5 Wheels: 30 Manacles: 30 Height: 8 feet Width: 8 feet Length: 22 feet Weight: 12,500 lbs Cargo: Rear area can hold 12 prisoners in a 24 cubic meter area. In an emergency, without manacles, up to 30 can be shoved inside. Powerplant: Electric Speed: 70 MPH Systems of Note: Standard Automobile Systems Air Filtration and Conditioning Roll Cage Manacles in rear half Net-Sec/Burb-Sec linked computer Radio Tear gas dispenser "Hornet's Nest" strips. (These fire heavy rubber pellets designed to stun) Weapons Systems: Usually a SAMAS railgun on the top, as well as a water-cannon with enough water for 2.5 minutes of spray Options: The medium security version has increased armor on the cab and prisoner area, uses canned air inside, as well as has a gas dispenser. There is also ultra/infra-sonic systems designed to stun and disorient passengers if needed. The heavy security version has heavily upgraded armor on the cab and prisoner area, the same features as the medium version, and strobing lights in a wide variety of frequencies designed to disorient nearly every type of creature. The system has also been specially designed to cause seizures in captive Ley Line Walker and Psions. Any prisoners put in the vehicle are usually fully secured before being put inside.
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Sep 28, 2014 02:51
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NG 309 'Fastjack' Aircar Developed in 100 PA, the Fastjack was the 100PA year sports aircar released by Northern Gun for the CS Market. Using "Innovated vectored air thrust technology" which was made a big deal out of, considering it was a very careful purchase from both Triax and the CS involving older military vectored air thrust. The Fastjack bragged about it's micro-fission plant that used "low level fuel pellet injection" that used depleted fuel rods reconditioned from the pulled reactor rods acquired from Northern Gun repair and refit facilities. The Fastjack was capable of up to 340 mph, with a sustained flight time of up to 6 hours before needing to land and let the jets cool or drop to below 120 mph. During factory test the vehicle could operate for literal months at 120 mph or less. The vehicle also offered the "wilderness model" as the "Fastjack Explorer" which the advertisement stressed the speed as it's primary survivability bonus. The wilderness model was highly popular, although the release of the Simmons Motors "Outland Explorer" later that year cornered the market with it's modular design making maintenance and modification easier. However, the Fastjack Explorer was discovered to have a problem with the capacitance gel, which had a tendency to overheat. This overheating caused the gel to rapidly drop in energy storage and transfer ability in a logarithmic dropoff rate. This was easily fixed by Northern Gun or outside mechanics (which were refunded by either store credit or credit upon proof of work) by adding a thin layer of standard 1/8 inch polycermic insulator plating. The second problem came about with the onboard electronics. Factory straight there was no problem, but a lot of people did after factory modification. The vectored air thrust, which created a lot of static electricity, had special grounding that was proprietary to the thrust system. The static was caused by the rear thrust fan bearing assembly and ring gear on the number five and six thrusters, both system had to use cassylinium alloy parts with Twarlex(TM) minimum friction coating. While the friction was as close as the system could get without organic superlubricant, it did create a lot of static electricity, which the proprietary grounding system handled. Sadly, third party mechanics didn't understand that the grounding system was designed to handle massive surges in current that occurred every 15-45 seconds when the engine had been running longer than two hours. Since the mechanics simply powered up the system to check the grounds, they found what they thought was a safety ground included "just in case", and attached electronics to it. This caused power surges to not only hit the third party products, but also rip through the entire system. This caused multiple crashes that it took investigators almost 10 wrecks to determine the cause of. For a brief period of time (5 weeks) sales dropped until it became common knowledge that the problem was having it serviced by non "NG Certified" mechanics. A third problem was with the autopilot system. The maps loaded up were fine, the waypoint system worked great, and the autopilot meshed well with the standard CS burb and CS citystate traffic control. The problem occurred when some people attempted to override the alcohol/drug sensors do they could drive intoxicated. (This system was not present in the wilderness version) In order to overcome a problem with drivers being able to override emergency systems commands from the traffic control computers or the autopilot system (such as a forced landing due to equipment failure) the intoxication system was directly wired into the override system on the control yokes. Bypassing this disabled the overrides, which caused more than a few sudden crashes in emergency situations, most notably the November 100PA aircrash wreck when an overridden system, driven by an intoxicated CS official, slammed into an ambulance carrying Brigadeer General Rolanda Moseby, killing the entire crew of the ambulance, the CS official, and the General. However, the wreckage was then struck by the two SAMAS flying anti-terrorist cover (who were unable to react in time to the oncoming aircar moving at speeds in excess of 375 MPH) and then the armor's spiraled out of the control when the flight stabilization wings were damaged. SAMAS CS-130974 spiraled vertically and struck Glory Road Towers at the 62nd story, impacting the embedded elementary school. The pilot, who was dazed and concussed, managed to pull all sixteen children out of the blaze, but died of his injuries before he could be removed from the armor. The pilot was a relative of the Prosek family, a triple Ace, and the video of SAMAS 130974 going down on one knee and the red highlighting on the edging activating to show the pilot was critically injured is still shown on Tri-HD shows that showcase CS military heroes. SAMAS CS-25112 spun in a controlled dive down to approximately 20 feet elevation when the right vectored thrust engine exploded, the suit spinning out of control, gaining altitude and slamming into the Circuit-7 mag-lev public transportation train, derailing it and killing 348 passengers. As the wreckage was examined by both Northern Gun inspectors and military Criminal Investigation Division and it was discovered that the system had been illegally modified. This resulted in all aircars being modified in such a way that any and all modification of the alcohol/drug perspiration detection system resulted in the vehicle "fusing" the molycircs. Type: Fastjack Aircar Class: Hovercar Crew: 1 driver, 1 forward passenger bucket seats, rear bench seat MDC/Armor by Location: (Second number is for the Wilderness Model) Main Body: 45 / 125 Macroplast "bubble" Canopy: 5 / 25 Side Doors: 10 / 50 Headlights: 5 / 15 Hover Thrusters: 10 / 45 Height: 5 feet Width: 6 feet Length: 11 feet Weight: 6,500 lbs Cargo: Rear area can hold up to 2 cubic meters and 1.5 metric tons of equipment Powerplant: Electric, the capacitor gel is fed by the nuclear reactor Speed: 340 MPH (Mechanics have been able to bypass the governor [mechanical and firmware] and overcharge it to 410 mph) Systems of Note: Standard Automobile Systems Radio Autopilot Inertial Mapping System Alcohol/Drug Detector, perspiration based Optional Leather Seats Optional brass/gold trim Air conditioner/filtration system The Wilderness model comes packed with a "hardpoint" able to hold SAMS railguns or NG railguns. Also chemical/radiation detection system.
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Sep 28, 2014 02:56
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TMV-3382 "Skyjammer" Tolkeen knew war was coming for nearly 20 years. Attempts to negotiate with the CS were fruitless, both sides had ideological differences that made them completely incompatible at coexisting, military advisers were making the serious mistake of guaranteeing the civilian leaders that a diplomatic resolution could be forced through military action. The biggest problem with a lot of advisers is they look at the narrow picture, and many assume that everyone is rational actors. War has many different causes, and few wars can be pointed at and said "This caused it" with any reality. The Tolkeen CS conflict was such a war. From resources, to ideology, to decades of propaganda, to military actions to force diplomatic solutions, to just plain overestimating themselves and under-estimating the enemy, war was unavoidable without one side or the other surrendering unconditionally. During the build-up to the war, Tolkeen needed vehicles that could take on the CS with a hope of winning. Most people looking at the CS consider the CS military a moving junkpile, since products from such vendors as Naurani and Atlantis can match them, but they fail to appreciate that there is a huge difference between a 10 year mercenary and a career CS soldier. With that in mind, the Tolkeen R&D began attempting to produce a suit of magical armor that could match the SAMAS for air superiority. For the most part air elementals, dragons, and other flight capable supernatural creatures were going to be the backbone of the Tolkeen Air Superiority plan, and that plan had a multitude of supporters, while the idea to produce technowizardry vehicles was scoffed at as "trying to beat Mr. CS Junkman at his own game" with proponents of the idea of technowizardry air superiority often publicly humiliated. So the Skyjammer project was started in 83 PA, without much funding, without much access to resources, and basically back-burned so that the few influential people who supported TW forces would be placated. The designers wrote a simple spec-sheet on what they would need, based on 1 to 1 dogfights with SAMAS. Ground Speed: 60 mph minimum Leaping: 15 feet high, jet assisted 100 feet high and 200 feet long Flying: 300 mph, 150 mph combat speed Altitude: 500 feet Flight Time: 10 hours of combat flight time Height: <10 feet Width: 6 feet or less Length: 6 feet or less Weapon Systems: Equal to the C-40R, 2 shot minimissile pack Armor Rating: Class III Maneuverability: Class II (Should be able to accurately and smoothly maneuver in urban combat conditions during flight) It looked simple. The project was mocked even during the "brainstorm" phase by mages claiming that Armor of Ithan, Impervious to Energy, and a simple flight spell, packing a Wilks Laser Rifle, was equal to a SAMAS. (This mistake was in part due to the majority of the 'military command' of Tolkeen having little to no actual formalized military training or experience, as well as not understanding the difference between Standard Operational Procedure and Maximum Performance) Dragons mocked it, considered Armor Rating Class IX creatures with magic, breath weapons, claws, and the like. Videos available were either CS propaganda or where a CS patrol of 2-4 SAMAS were jumped by overwhelming odds, meaning that out of the gate researchers had a low opinion of the SAMAS. The first design was little more than a crystal harness with a lightning bolt spell rod and Armor of Ithan spells. The volunteer pilots (many deserters from the CS who claimed much more experience than they had, if they even had any combat experience) found these agile opponents difficult. The TW "Flight Combat Harness" was produced in low numbers, volunteers (all creatures who claimed hundreds of hours of combat against the CS) were outfitted with it, and they left to intercept known patrol routes of the CS and engage them in combat while observers watched the field trial. Right here military weaponry enthusiasts will notice that the Tolkeen R&D system had already failed. They were making the data fit their assumptions, which is something that happened even to trained professionals, as well as not looking at the data dispassionately. Those of you familiar with vehicle data sheets from more professional militaries, including Pre-Cataclysm military databases, probably see where this is going to go. All 22 were engaged and destroyed by SAMAS operators in less than 3 minutes. Three minutes were all that the "Flight Combat System" lasted, including the 61 seconds that the SAMAS pilots pursued fleeing members. Worse, the local commander broadcast the "fight" from the suit data recorders, where the initial sighting was met with "What the hell is that?" to the laughter of the CS pilots in between their constant combat chatter. This was in 83 PA, when many spell using creatures didn't understand exactly what they were hearing. While the Tolkeen R&D program recorded the initial battle as well as received copies of the CS data, they really didn't understand everything that went wrong was less about the equipment and more about the fact that the users had not trained together, did not know how to use the system, did not operate as a team, and underestimated their foes. Back to the drawing board. In 84 PA the "Freeflight Mark II" (Freeflight being the name of the project) was created. This 'armor' used light MDC non-environmental armor, added Armor of Ithan, a lightning bolt thrower, and spell enhanced strength to handle the NG-101 railgun and the ammunition pack. It looked like a suit of Huntsman Armor with crystals glued to it, some hotglue smeared on it, a medallion on the chest, and a carved stick on the shoulder, along with the NG-101. Flight trials showed it could reach up to 350 MPH, and the Freeflight Team took the armor out and held speed trials. One thing a military and technological designer can tell you is that just because something can go real fast doesn't necessarily mean it should, and the Freeflight Team and its volunteers found out why. At 350 mph the wind both dropped the operators into hypothermia as well as began suffocating them. Eight grew disorientated and were lost in the distance. 2 suits were recovered months later, found up in trees with skeletons still inside the armor. The six remaining were ordered to make a hard left turn. Where the cross currents ripped the NG-101 out of their arms. But that wasn't the worst, the high speed, high-G turn made them black out. Eight suits entered. All of them crashed and burned. It took four more trials before they added a magical pressure sleeve (which crushed the initial users to death upon activation) to compensate. It could fly nap of earth, perform high G turns, and the designers figured it was ready to try "high altitude flight" and added in magical lift to the system. The first six suits equipped and field tested immediately shot upwards and vanished, never to be seen again. The spell was carefully redesigned to have a maximum 'ceiling' of 650 feet, and the next trail was performed. Where the operators hit the 650 foot mark and slammed into an invisible 'barrier' and were crushed to death. It took mages going up and retrieving the armor to get it back, where it was stuck to mid-air like flypaper. So the spell was reworked, and tried again, but a mistake in the mystical calculations accelerated them to MACH 6.5 and then came to an instant stop, reducing the occupants to jelly. The spell was reworked again, but the spell then just slowly floated them upward to 650 feet where they just bobbed around like bubbles. The next set allowed the 'pilots' to move up and down as well as make turns and do 'normal' power armor-esque flight. During a test of 20 of these 'armor systems' a passing CS patrol of 4 SAMAS suits saw it and tore into the 20 suits, suffering no casualties while destroying all 20 suits and killing the operators, some of the observers, and two of the technowizard researchers. The worst part was one of the SAMAS pilots laughed the entire thing over his loudspeaker, even as he disappeared into the distance after popping off his flares. Things were not going well for Project Freeflight. By this time Project Freeflight was being ridiculed. CS and Triax developers could have told them that this was pretty much par for the course with new technologies, and would have understood that they were making good progress. Not so the Tolkeen R&D establishment, which was mostly just taking existing technowizardry and magical 'technologies' and 'improving' them with advice from Atlantis and other long standing R&D programs. The Freeflight Program took everything back to the drawing board. (Hint for future researchers: Always back up your data.) They discarded the off the shelf Huntsman Armor and built their own suit, added 'ablative layers' of Armor of Ithan (A massive innovation that nobody actually realized was a long standing goal for many magical R&D programs), Breathe Without Air, Impervious to Energy, Superior Invisibility, strength enhancement, two lightning projectors, a 250 PPE battery (that would power armor and weaponry for supposedly 4 hours of combat), Eyes of the Eagle, and Temporal Magic for faster reflexes. The armor was capable of taking 2 direct hits from a Glitterboy main gun, three if there was enough time for the operator to reactivate the armor spells, the lightning projectors were capable of disabling or killing the operator of standard heavy CS body armor in two direct hits, and the enhanced reflexes allowed for operators to deal with the fast and furious pace of combat. It was projected that the armor could stand up to the SAMAS suit in combat. Irritated with the delays the head of the R&D program was replaced, and a new head researcher took over, who immediately discarded all the previously recorded data as his now-disgraced rival had overseen it and he had 'no interest in details of failure', and the newest suit was pushed through with almost no testing. This also included the "Ablative Armor of Ithan" data, meaning the spell could have been lost forever. The project built fifty suits for testing in 88 PA and immediately gave operators a 3 day crash course training program and sent them out to engage CS forces who were performing field exercises in the area to 'prove that the project was a success under [his] leadership.' The 20 suits of 'advanced technowizard armor' engaged a force of 10 SAMAS apparently just cruising around in circles. This immediately turning into a high-G dogfight where 2 SAMAS were forced to land and fight on foot. Only two Freeflight Operators survived, although one was captured and field executed by the CS forces. The head of R&D blamed the current researchers for the failures (meanwhile the CS was going over every scrap of combat footage and seeing a very real and very capable suit of TW flying armor that was just used ineffectively and couldn't face armors using Flight Combat Control Systems) and completely discarded everything but the armor itself. Redesigns of the spells resulted in casualties, explosions, and deaths, but eventually new armor spells were designed, the flight spells were adjusted properly, and the armor was ready for another field trial. The armor could withstand 3 direct hits from a Glitterboy Railgun, 5 if the Armor spells were activated in the correct sequence, it had strength comparable with a Glitterboy, had a fireball launcher on the right shoulder that hit harder that a CS standard plasma rifle, and a lightning thrower on the right arm that could match the firepower of a a particle projection cannon. Field testing took place, along with computer simulation, and the armor was declared a success. Six thousand of them were crafted over a period of 3 years, and once they were all finished, training of pilots began. Most technowizards and ley-line walkers were not interested in the armor, many of them seeing the armor melt or become covered in blood just looking at them, but there are always volunteers to fight no matter how bad the weapon is. The datasheet showed a suit of TW power armor that was superior to the SAMAS in every way. Tolkeen Datasheet for TMV 3382 Head: 100 MDC Main Body: 350 MDC LEgs: 200 MDC Arms: 125 MDC Wings: 125 MDC Force Field: 100 MDC (3 activations) PPE Storage: 600 Ground Speed: 90 mph Leaping: 75 feet high, magical assisted 250 feet high and 500 feet long Flying: 450 mph, 250 mph combat speed Altitude: 750 feet Flight Time: 20 hours of cruising speed, 12 hours of combat flight time Height: 8 feet Width: 4.5 feet (8 feet with wings deployed) Length: 3 feet Weapon Systems: Fireball Launcher
That was the official datasheet presented to the Tolkeen military. By this time the CS had just unveiled their new war machine, but the R&D team was convinced that the Freeflight Project was a success. However the R&D director was of the opinion that one SAMAS was the same as the other, and scoffed at all reports of the CS making significant upgrades to the venerable old US Army SAMAS as rumors, as he saw it merely sporting cosmetic changes that probably weakened the system all around. He insisted that properly deployed that the Skyjammer (the name he insisted the armor be saddled with) could take on even the new SAMAS suits in a 1:2 ratio and still be capable of combat while mission killing the two CS armors. The test pilots were replaced after their complaints about the armor, and the new pilots were trained for only a few months before the Tolkeen War began. The Skyjammer Power Armor was deployed against the CS SAMAS teams. Broken into 20 man teams the Skyjammer Corps quickly sped in to attack the CS forces advancing on Tolkeen, setting up forward logistics bases and forward operation bases, and fire bases. The pilots were confident in their TW armor and the spells woven into it, and sped quickly into combat against the CS troops. Out of 1,200 deployed in the first 24 hours of combat, not one returned. However Air Command insisted that the Skyjammer Armor had achieved up to 1:10 casaulty ratios against the CS air support and insisted that the armor had proven itself in combat. A second wave was ordered on the third day, with orders to engage SAMAS troops wherever found. This was had only 500 troops, divided into teams of 5, and spread out across the front, with orders to attempt to attack rear areas, supply depots, ammunition dumps, and the like. Forty pilots returned, another 328 returned over the next several days on foot, most of which had no armor. The recriminations started pouring in. First of all, the PPE system drained rapidly under high speed flight, as the testing rarely had the armor up for longer than an hour, or doing low speed flight for distance near ley-lines so that observers on TW wing boards could follow along and observe the armor. Under high speed flight with nap of earth maneuvering, the PPE batteries drained in under two hours. The crystal that was supposed to change color as power dropped in the PPE reserve was little more than colored glass (it was added to shut the pilots up, and then the actual crystals and the layered spells were decided to be too expensive and too big of a pain in the rear end to install, so the glass was left in the suits) Without warning the suit would suddenly completely and totally lose power, which would kick in the emergency systems, which would eject the pilot, destroy the armor, and the pilot would float gently to earth. Being shot at by CS troops. Secondly, the CS doctrine appeared to have radically changed. Rather than close in combat that the CS seemed to engage in prior to the war, SAMAS pilots acted more like jet pilots of old, keeping a distance from their opponents and often attacking at maximum range of their weaponry. By the time Skyjammer armors could engage they were heavily damaged and often were suffering a total shield depletion. Third, the armor apparently had a MASSIVE radar signature that was easily detectable from miles out. While the standard approaching under the invisibility spell was followed, apparently the invisibility didn't count toward radar or the seeking peniads of the missiles that tore so many apart a mile out or further from CS troops. Some of the surviving pilots reporting running face first into CS AA systems and seeing their entire team obliterated in a matter of seconds. Fourth, the Impervious to Energy seemed to intermix with the lightning spells after a few firings under high stress combat conditions, causing one, the other, or sometimes both to fail. Worst of all, many of the pilots asked "What the HELL were you thinking" as the SAMAS suits used KINETIC weapons, not lasers, meaning that the only thing it seemed to protect from was CS troop ground fire. That is, until they started using their grenade launchers to shoot them down. Fifth, the fireball launcher was all well and good, but at attack speeds in excess of 200 MPH if the operator fired the fireball launcher the pilot would end up slamming into the fireball himself. Sixth: All weapons were forward facing, and outstretching one's arm at high speed to fire at an opponent on the left or right invariably dislocated the pilot's shoulder, which caused the armor to eject the operator in roughly 50% of the occurrences. Seventh: For an air combat armor, it seemed to lack the most basic anti-missile systems. While the standard doctrine of "Shoot them down" sounded good, missiles fired by the CS seemed to like to go for a rear impact, a top down hit, or explode to the right or left and hit the armor with multiple penetrators. There were no flares, no chaff, no spoofing, no nothing. Those were bad enough, but pilots reported that they had to rely on their eyes, and there was no targeting system in the armor. While that was perfectly fine for one on one or even two on one battles, the lack of sensor systems and targeting systems the pilots kept losing sight of their opponents, couldn't see incoming missiles, got disoriented during combat manuevers and sometimes crashed into the ground, and worse, the CS pilots seemed to figure out quickly and would let the Skyjammer pilots get behind them, pop smoke or magnesium flares, and let one Skyjammer pilot slam into the other. Some of the survivors were very vocal in the protections, speed, maneuverability, and capability of the armor was vastly overstated, accusing the R&D group of flat out lying about their results. Regardless of the pilots fears and accusations, the rest of the armors were committed against the CS a few weeks later, with orders to mass attack one of the larger CS air bases. It resulted in a total loss of all pilots and less than 20 SAMAS suits shot down. Less than a dozen pilots got close enough to even see the air base. Only 12 returned on foot. Examination of the Skyjammer revealed the followed real specifications. Tolkeen Datasheet for TMV 3382 Head: 35 MDC Main Body: 150 MDC LEgs: 50 MDC Arms: 35 MDC Wings: 15 MDC Force Field: 50 MDC (3 activations) PPE Storage: 100 PPE Ground Speed: 5 mph Leaping: 25 feet high, magical assisted [DO NOT DO!] Flying: 450 mph, 50 mph max combat speed Altitude: 600 feet Flight Time: 20 hours of cruising speed, 2 hours of combat flight time Height: 8 feet Width: 4.5 feet (8 feet with wings deployed) Length: 3 feet Weapon Systems: Fireball Launcher
Any Skyjammer armors are either hidden somewhere near the battlefields, abandoned in the woods, or in CS custody. The armor suffered from nepotism, shoddy magical research, forcing fact and exercises to fit expected results, over-estimating the armor's effect, under-estimating the enemy equipment and tacticcs, not involving people who understood military hardware, and ignoring tester feedback. Had Tolkeen survived the war, they would have discovered that every single problem with the armor had been reported by testers and test-pilots during the development and trainup of the forces. SAMAS armors that faced off against the Skyjammer during testing had their software, firmware, and hardware artificially inhibited, and exercises were designed in such a way that the Skyjammer had the advantage, no matter how unrealistic the scenario was, and only the scenarios where the Skyjammer was victorious were used as baselines. Additionally the head of R&D was a major opponent of Technowizardry trying to breach the gap between the CS's high tech advantages and a fierce proponent of magic superiority. The head of R&D envisioned the war not breaking out for nearly 10 more years, and often publicly discounted the idea of the CS ever actually attacking Tolkeen, feeling that Tolkeen's magic might and obvious proficiency would deter the CS from attacking, due to "magic's superiority over technology" that he saw as obvious to anyone who cared to look. Additionally when the head of R&D took over he immediately fired anyone who didn't have the same belief, including the only members with experience in military operations, discounting the former CS Major who had defected due to falling in love with a DB woman. The Major had 15 years of experience with SAMAS and air operations, and had been at immediate loggerheads with the new head of R&D. The entire Skyjammer and Freeflight Project was nothing more than an expensive boondoggle that failed to produce anything worthwhile for combat operations, and is a lost footnote of the CS/Tolkeen War.
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Sep 28, 2014 03:10
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Neural Mace The M-2 Neural Mace is the standard issued riot control device of the NEMA forces, although special forces and Silver Eagle pilots often carry it. The M-2 Neural Mace is manufactured by the Fallin Armaments Corporation, and was awarded the NEMA manufacturing contract in 2085, following a 10 year competition program to develop an effective non-lethal weapon that could be used in hand to hand against crowds. Despite multiple lawsuits claiming neurological damage by over several hundred claimants following the 2087 Mexico City WTO riots, medical evidence has proven solidly that the neural mace does not cause neurological damage when used properly. The neural mace is somewhat misnamed, as it is a 2 foot long, 2 inches thick rod with a wider section (4 inches thick) on the last 3 inches of the rod. The rod and sphere is made of duraplastic, and has a porous grip allowing even armored soldiers or sweaty hands to comfortably and safely grip the weapon. The staff of the rod contains the self-charging power supply, that recharges at a steady rate based on movement by the wielder. It will recharge at such a rate that it will be fully charged within one hour of common carrying. The ball contains the electro-shock circuitry, including a variable sine wave modulation circuit, keeping "smart suits" from being developed to overcome the paralyzing sine wave. The weapon works off of striking a target with the same frequency and sine wave as the individual's bio-electricity, causing an overloading effect on the nervous system, and the charge following the nerve cords into the spinal column, and ultimately, the motor control center. This degrades the subjects motor control skills, making them suffer from muscle tremors, numbness, tingling, and phantom pains/sensations. When those unconscious are struck, there have been reports of brain damage, nervous system damage, and damage to the nerve endings, but as of this writing there are no medical documentation to support these reports. The neural mace is often shown in vid and holo as being swung like a baton, used to smash heads in addition to doing neuralogical damage, however this is all footage for the Cuba/Mexico Unification riots. In standard practice a light touch can be used, as well as the jab/thrust with the weapon. The neural rod can also be used to block and parry vibro-weapons (As the Mexico City WTO riots showed). A hard impact is not necessary, and many officers only attempt to tap a criminal, or use a restrained swing, in order for the weapon to be effective. There have been reports of the circuitry being tampered with to increase the amount of energy released to double normal energy, this often causes convulsions and worse, and has been known to kill people who have been struck multiple times. In addition, some have been modified to accept short eclips, these version can often do lethal damage, or damage to supernatural beings, but have only roughly 12 successful strikes per e-clip (weapon discharges) until the clip is depleted. Neural Maces from the NEMA Era recovered are often thought to be completely unservicable, however knowledgeable scavengers know that allowing the weapon to swing freely from the belt will recharge the weapon in less than 2 hours. Still, some weaponsmiths remove the charger and the capacitance gel and replace it with an eclip power conduit. Weight: 4 lbs Length: 0.75m Magazine Capacity: 4 hours Recharge Time (internal): 1 hour Recharge Time (Charger): 0.5 hour Recharge Time (Fast Charge): 10 minutes
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Sep 28, 2014 03:14
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Vibro Weapons Designed in 2096 by Stratcorp Medical Systems, the vibro-system was originally to be marketed as the next generation surgical tool, following the sonic scalpel and laser scalpels, for poorer nations unable to afford the infrastructure needed for laser scalpels and sonic surgical systems. However, tests involving the maximum density of material that the field encased blade could cut through showed that it could slice through molecularly bonded military grade armor. Further tests showed that the "penetration field" could be bonded to virtually any sized blade given enough power, and prototype vibro-knives, vibro-sabers, and even vibro-axes and "vibro-saws" could be created. The knowledge that the United States government would immediately restrict the technology, citing it's ease in use by insurgent forces and terrorist organizations, Stratcorp immediately sold the research and development done thus far to the US government, who turned it over to DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) for military applications. The vibroblade technology was also sold to QwikFire Rescue Technologies, who was also developing environmental body armor for fire departments, rescue operations, and emergency service personnel, for use in rescue operations involving the newly constructed (and the many renovated) buildings that contained hardened material. This was estimated to be especially lucrative in California and Tornado Alley, as there was often building damage due to earthquakes and tornadoes. DARPA applied the vibroblade technology not only to fighting knives, but to sabers (bringing sabers and sword fighting back to Officer's Training), bayonets, and medical applications. When the field is on low power, it surrounds the blade in a silvery field that prevents the blade from cutting into anything, making it perfect for practicing with the actual weapon. Sword fighting classes became mandatory in Officers Training, and many Kendo classes were found on military bases. Knife fighting was taught in Basic Training, and knife fighting became a sport in the same class as Combatives Training. After the coming of the Rifts, nearly every NEMA volunteer was issued vibroweapons, and these were often handed down from generation to generation, as they allowed someone with any type of protective gear to engage demonic entities with a chance of success. During the Dark Ages, the Black Market and a few other groups offered new vibroblades to purchasers, although they were never very popular. Vibroblades were usually manufactured by the city of Iron Heart, and sold in enough numbers to make it profitable. The Coalition States ignored vibro-blade technology for literally decades, until the unvieling of the Canine Soldier program, where hand weapons that would not endanger civilians. The generation circuitry is only the size of a C-battery in width (3/4") and only 1/4" of an inch thick, no matter what the size of the field. The power conduit circuitry expands with the size of the blade, and the current known limit of the field is roughly 12 feet. Despite attempting to make the generation circuitry larger, it has been discovered that it makes no difference in the size of the field. Vibro-Axe: Used primarily in rescue operations, most of these have been lost or destroyed over the years, and currently very few organizations possess them. The energy field generation equipment is located in the central section of the handle, which is made of lightweight but military grade material. The lower section contains the capacitance gel and the kinetic charging system, allowing the axe to be recharged with a steady swinging motion (typically on the belt, or when worn across the back) in as little as 2 hours. The head is a solid wedge, with the field covering the edge of the axe. Roughly 40% of all vibro-axes are double-bitted axes, the rest having a pounding flat surface. Weight: 9 lbs Length: 1m Charge Length: 4 hours. Recharge Time (internal): 8 hours. Recharge Time (Charger): 2 hours Recharge Time (Fast Charge): 15 minutes Vibro-Knife A common fall back weapon, the vibro-knife contains the field generation circuitry, as well as the energy and capacitance gel compartment. The weapon is often used as a close in weapon by Juicers, MOM amplified soldiers, and as a weapon of silence or desperation by ground troops. Weight: 2.4 lbs Length: Blade: 6" Hilt: 4" Charge Length: 20 minutes. Recharge Time (internal): 4 hours. Recharge Time (Charger): 2 hours Recharge Time (Fast Charge): 30 min Vibro-Swords A useful weapon up close and personal, the vibro-saber has a side-effect of creating a gleaming silver blade, even on low power (which safely encases the blade in a field that does not cut or slash), which has made carrying a saber once again fashionable in officer circles. The blade's of NEMA military personnel are often engraved, usually with decorations referring to the branch of service or the Division, but some lifer officers had personal engravings on the blade. The hilt contains the self-charging system, the capacitance gel, as well as the field generation system. Saber: Weight: 7 lbs Length, Blade: 2 feet Length, hilt: 6 inches Charge Length: 1 hour. Recharge Time (internal): 4 hours. Recharge Time (Charger): 2 hours Recharge Time (Fast Charge): 1 hour Sword: Weight: 9 lbs Length, Blade: 3 feet Hilt: 9 inches Charge Length: 2 hours. Recharge Time (internal): 8 hours. Recharge Time (Charger): 4 hours Recharge Time (Fast Charge): 2 hours Giant Sword: Weight: 15 lbs Length, Blade: 7 feet Hilt: 2 feet Charge Length: 4 hours. Recharge Time (internal): 12 hours. Recharge Time (Charger): 6 hours Recharge Time (Fast Charge): 3 hours Vibro-Forearm Claws Designed by DARPA for Force XXII, and field tested by USSOCOM, vibro-forearm claws have seen use in many a covert operation. The field generated wraps around two extendable hooked claws, allowed the operative to quickly cut down trees, sabotage military equipment, and block vibro-weapon swipes. After the Rifts, these were largely unheard of, until the creation of the Psi-Hounds, which were rapidly armed with them. Length: 9 inches, 6 inches past fist. 8 inches long housing chamber Weight: 2.5 lbs. Charge Length: 4 hours. Recharge Time (internal): 4 hours. Recharge Time (Charger): 2 hours Recharge Time (Fast Charge): 15 minutes Charging Cradles Charging cradles are found in police/fire stations during the time of NEMA, and in military armories. These are designed to use the studs (thought by many to be merely decorative) on the end of the hilt to charge the capacitance gel. While normally a "trickle charge" is using to avoid ionizing the gel, they can be fast charged during an emergency. However, this has an 8% chance of ionizing the capacitance gel and rendering totally unable to hold a charge, or partially ionized so that power delivery is intermittent, or it only holds a partial charged, despite the fact it reads as ful
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Sep 28, 2014 03:16
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NEMA M-12 Automag (AMT) Pistol Designed by Colt Firearms Industry in 2068 to replace the aging light pistol currently in use by NEMA forces and the United States Military, the M-12 AMT is a masterful combination of third-generation plastics and lightweight but superstrong metals. This weapon has an active firing life of over a half-million rounds, thanks to high-tensile materials used in it's construction. In addition, barrel wear is limited, resulting in near perfect accuracy even years down the line. The weapon uses caseless rounds, and has built in recoil compensators, allowing for rapid and accurate firing, even if the weapon is submerged. In addition the ability to fire three round bursts is added on the military version and the NEMA version of this pistol, allowing for rapid firepower for a soldier or peacekeeper who is only left with his sidearm for defense. Soldiers and peacekeepers are trained to fire the weapon out to 80 meters unassisted (240 feet) and most police agencies train to fire to 65 meters unassisted. The high tensile materials allow for greater chamber compression, while the intregal recoil compensators allow for precision shooting at those ranges even when using the rapid fire mode. During field trials, this weapon performed admirably, the 10mm shell feeling "heavier" to users, and providing more knockback than the 9mm round, with only slightly less penetration, without the weight of the .45 round. The weapon itself is jet black, with a white mark on the rear of the front sight and two white dots on the two rear posts, allowing for increased precision. In addition the dots can be lit up for night use by rubbing them briefly with the thumb. The trigger is usually set to 5 lbs and the trigger guard is large enough to allow soldiers wearing military grade body armor the ability to fire the pistol without removing the bottom of the trigger guard. The bottom of the trigger guard can be removed to allow this pistol to be used by heavy cyborgs. The safety is usable from either side, making the pistol functional for both right and left handed soldiers In addition there is a grip safety that keeps the weapon from being fired unless someone is gripping it firmly, preventing the weapon from discharging when dropped or loosely held. The M-12 can also be modified depending upon the mission, including:
In addition to this, NEMA and the US Military have recently fielded APDS rounds, APDSFS rounds, and Solid Fuel Ring Penetrators for the M-12 combat pistol. Armor Piercing Discarding Sabot This allows the pistol to fire a hyper-velocity dart, mainly aimed at penetrating military grade body armor, as well as civilian knockoffs in the hands of insurgents, terrorists, or high tech criminals. These rounds do increased damage due to the hardened ammunition (usually a neo-tungsten dart) and the collected kinetic energy striking on such a small surface, allowing it to overcome next-generation ballistic weaves, nano-fluidic compensating armors, and limited thickness ballistic plates. However, they do less soft tissue damage due to lack of round fragmentation upon entering the body, as well as a more frequent "through and through" strike. In addition an APDS round does not have the same hydrostatic shock properties upon the human body as normal bullets. Armor Piercing Discarding Sabot Fin Stabalized This is essentially as above, except the "dart" has three micro-fins that cause the round to spin to stabalize its flight and allow for greater accuracy at a distance. Solid Fuel Ring Penetrators Misnomered as "Ramjet Rounds" this rounds area circular ring, the forward leading edge made of high tensile neo-carbide material, while the rear part of the shell is a "flight shell" that contains solid rocket fuel. This fuel is ignited by the high speed of the round, propelling the round further and faster, allowing it to penetrate armor better, as well as giving it increased range. Weight: 1.6 lbs Length: 7.5 inches Caliber: 10mm Maximum Range: 500m (1500 ft) Maximum Effective Range: 200m (600 ft) Typical Combat Range: <50m (<150 ft) Magazine Capacity: 18 rounds, however 30 round extended clips exist
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Sep 28, 2014 03:16
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NEMA M-18 5.56mm Assault Rifle Based off the venerable M-16/M-4 series of rifles that appeared in use during the Mid-20th Century, this weapon was designed for NEMA forces by Heckler and Koch of Germany and manufactured in Harrisburg IL for use by NEMA exclusively. While the military had moved primarily to heavy grade weaponry, the need for small arms that could still be used in a modern urban setting without destroying the surrounding structures was still needed. Due to that need, NEMA began field trials in 2078, with the HK-104 winning out over Colt Industries by a narrow margin. The loss of this contract forced Colt to switch over to rail gun production, leaving behind the chemical small arms. The M-18 carried on the M-4's tradition of SOPMOD capability (Standard Operation Procedure MODification) of switchable parts, allowing units to tailor the weapon for squad operations, as well as deep strikes. H&K Also supplied the M-62 Magnetic Accelerator Supplmental System, allowing the weapon to fire hyper-velocity rounds that could penetrate light military grade body armor, along with the power pack. This allowed the M-12 to be used for nearly all duties, and allowed it to be fielded by NEMA in many different roles. With the addition of a 40mm grenade launcher, or a 12 gauge shotgun system, the hyper-kinetic system, as well as the bipod, the weapon was easy for NEMA forces in remote undeveloped areas to field. The M-18 is made of lightweight materials, much like the M-12 Automag, and benefits from this by having a longer service life, being lighter, more resiliant, and able to withstand shoddy or no maintenance. In addition H&K moved to the bullpup rotating bolt system to reduce recoil, even when using fully automatic, as well as caseless ammunition. The high cyclic rate of fire, low heat expansion difficulties, and lack of signifigant recoil has often led to this weapon, mounted on a bipod, being used as a light machinegun by desperate NEMA forces. M-62 Hyper Kinetic System This add-on is two parts, the first being laid over the barrel, like a heat shroud, and the second mounted on the buttstock. This uses accelleration U's to accellerate the fired round to massive speeds, enabling it to be used at a far distance (some US Army snipers reported that it was accurate at up to a mile) as well as giving it an addition punch necessary to overcome the protective properties of modern body armor. While this sleeve may seem as if it would be a cheap and easy fix for old weapons, it required special ammunition (iron or steel jacketed rounds) as well as having a limited power supply. Good for only roughly 50 shots/bursts before running out of energy. In addition the M-62 system, while it passed field trials, failed in practice during one of the UN peacekeeping missions.
While this weapon seems to be highly effective during field trials, soldiers in the field reported that the bullpup system was prone to misfiring, that the three round burst often jammed and caused the weapon to fire off an entire magazine, and that the caseless ammunition used left "significant residue" in the weapons interior. However, NEMA and the DoD, as well as H&K, claimed it was improper maintenance. During the Fall, the weapon often jammed due to volcanic ash getting into the work, the M-62 HKS would instantly be coated by microfine iron particles, and the bullpup system would often fail during firing, as more than 10,000 rounds were fired through the weapon. In addition, the weapon often suffered damage when handled roughly, making the weapon unusable when the trigger assembly broke, the buttstock broke, or the pistol grip snapped off. Most of these weapons vanished during the Apocalypse, although they occassionally turn up over mantepieces, in town halls, or in the possession of Squiddies. Weight: 6 lbs Length: 31 inches Caliber: 5.56mm Maximum Range: 2100m (6300 ft) Maximum Effective Range: 400m (1200 ft) (although the Marines train to 400m, the Army and NEMA train to 300m (900 ft)) Typical Combat Range: 100m (300 ft) Magazine Capacity: 32/48 round magazine, 144 round drum Cyclic Rate of Fire: 950 rounds per minute
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Sep 28, 2014 03:17
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I know I'm copying these off another board, and only doing minor formatting/spelling corrections, but this stuff is all stuff I did there, and I thought since the thread is largely dead anyway, I could post this stuff in here to either breathe life into it, or just share it with SA Rifts enthusiasts. Gotta run to the store for some stuff, but when I get back, I'll finish posting the rest of the stuff. Either way, I hope you enjoy it all.
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Sep 28, 2014 03:18
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PLP-20 Laser Pistol With the introduction of lightwieght armor that could be cheaply made, and the appearance of nearly military grade body armor in the hands of insurgents, terrorists, and organized crime syndicates, NEMA was in need of a standardized military grade weapons line. With the US and Canadian Military having already conducted field trials for heavy weaponry, NEMA was easily able to choose a manufacturer for their line of military grade hardware. The PLP-20 had been fielded for trial testing in 2058 by Litton Laser Research, a subsidiary of Litton/Intel Industries, but was not selected due to the weapon missing the ability to engage soft targets without vaporization of the target. However, it was a weapon able to handle the rigors of combat and easily met the needs of NEMA. The LLR made pistol was manufactured in Grass Valley CA, at the Litton/Intel plant, and Litton quickly built satellite plants in Mexico and Canada, to easily arm those militaries, bolster the local economy, and in accordance with the 2062 NAFTA protocols. Two changes were made in the standard PLP-20 for use by NEMA, this was the addition of a set of rails to the top and bottom of the pistol to allow various pistol modifications to be added to the weapon in accordance to mission need. The casing is made of lightweight molecularly bonded synthetic plastic, as developed by Dow Chemical, as well as molecularly bonded neo-tungsten for the casing. The fire selector lever is available on both the right and left side of the weapon, allowing ease of use for right and left handed firers, but the discovery that the trigger guard did not allow ease of use for troops wearing body armor resulted in the trigger guard being moved forward slightly to compensate, and the addition of a "pivot pin" set being integrated into the trigger guard to allow the trigger guard to be dropped to hang free so that it could be used by those in heavy body armor or heavy cyborgs. The crystal matrix used for laser focusing to provide a tight beam are 8-sided quartz crystals that have been factory laser cleaned to remove impurities. This provided free flow for the beam, as well as a non-degradable lasing matrix. Quartz crystal was chosen for its durability and resistance to damage when knocked around. The weapon has a 1.5cm aperture, giving it high damage capability with a tight wavelength allowing for excellent range without significant atmospheric degradation. The handgrip uses the time proven deformable plastic grips, which have proved reliable even when the wielder is wearing body armor, bare handed with a wet grip, or the weapon is heated due to extensive use. However, the grip pads are non-removable, which lowers the service life of this pistol. An after design mistake in the factory processing on the case resulted in the Auto-CAD program mistaking the front and rear sights as mold injection points and the sights being trimmed from the pistol during final finishing. The pistol is a dark-blue, non reflective finish that is heat bonded to the casing materials to ensure that the pistol does not reflect light during a covert operation. Common additions to the weapon are as follows:
The inclusion of a burst setting on this weapon has given it the punch needed to penetrate light security body armor with a pair of well placed shots, and as it has no recoil, each shot is more accurate than it would be in the case of chemical firearms. However field use has shown that on occasion the second or third laser "bolt" will be lower power than the other two, and extended us of the burst setting can cause microfractures in the crystal lasing matrix. After the Cataclysm, the use of this pistol increased geometrically, and was found to be useful against the smaller demons. However, the ash and the microfinecrystallines in the atmosphere seriously degraded the weapons range. In Rifts, possession of this pistol has resorted to hand me down status, but even so, there are many who purchase this pistol, as the casing is functionally identical to the Coalition States knock off version, while the pistol is more powerful than the Coalition States. Some pistols seem to have the ability to overcome laser resistant armor, although documentation on this being an official modification is lacking, the presence of variable frequency molycircs cannot be denied. One of the most well documented complaints regarding this pistol is the interface socket, allowing the weapon to be connected to power armor or portable power packs, has a tendency to come loose, the material used for conduction easily corrodes, or the socket breaks completely. Sometimes this results in plug insertion problems, intermittent power feeding, or damage to the internal power leads. Weight: 2.6 lbs Length: 7.25 inches Caliber: 1.25cm Maximum Range: 1500m (4500 ft) Maximum Effective Range: 350m (1050 ft) Typical Combat Range: <50m (< 150 ft) Magazine Capacity: 21 shots/7 bursts for standard energy magazine, 168 shots/56 bursts with power pack.
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Sep 28, 2014 04:45
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MIP-21 "Crime Stopper" Ion Pistol Acknowledging that NEMA officers might find themselves in serious trouble when engaging crime cartels or weapons smuggling groups, NEMA officials decided that the agents would need a heavier pistol even before the equipment tables were decided upon. The US Army was fielding primarily laser weapons, with the same base damage capability as most laser weapons, as was the Canadian and Mexican militaries. However, the United States Marine Corps seemed to disdain lasers, and had moved to ion weaponry, as had US SOCOM and JSOC. The MIP-21 had been in use with US SOCOM since 2071, and was the "preferred" pistol of operators within the covert community. NEMA planners looked over hundreds of after action reports and found only three cases where the MIP-21 had failed under combat conditions, and all three could not have been reasonably expected to hold up under such grueling punishment as being run over by tank, struck by a rail gun round, and in one freak case, holed by a micro-meteorite. Produced by Shayden Energy LLC, the MIP-21 fired a packet of positively charged ions by stripping electrons from air molecules injected into the chamber and using a magnetic directional pulse to "fire" the packet of ions toward a target. The impact of this ion "bolt" would cause the electrons in the outer shells of the targeted materials to violently strip away as the ions within the charge tried to balance their electron valence bands. This caused the struck material to slough off with a loud, explosive noise as the molecular stabilization failed. This proved particularly useful against molecularly bonded armor as the molecular bonds failed when the atomic structure became unstable. Shayden Energy LLC built a total of eight factories for these weapons, each factory producing certain parts, with the primary assembly plant being in southern Mexico. This prevented shipment hijackings from making off with several thousand of these pistols. Used against a soft target, this ion "bolt" had devestating effects as the energy transfer from the target to the ions in the bolt resulted in superheating of cells, causing them to explode. This effect was often called "disruption" when used on soft targets, and the damage profile was easily recognizable. The pistol's chamber is fed by two small air injectors, which pressurize the chamber with air in order to give the ionization circuitry something to ionize without resulting in a 2-magazine system. At first a combination energy/ammunition clip was discussed, with copper molecules suspended in a plastic matrix being suggested, as copper easily gave up its electrons in the outer valence bands, but this was discarded as requiring the weapon to utilize special ammunition, something the NEMA equipment planners and Marine Corps wanted to avoid. The grip is hard plastic overlaid with soft plastic handsgrips that deform slightly to allow use by personnel wearing body armor, or when the naked hand is slick due to blood, water, oil, or other environmental hazards. The body itself is made up of synthetic plastics and neo-tungsten, and flash-colored a dark gray color. The handgrip is a light gray, and the sighting rail has a white dot on the rear. The trigger assembly was modified from a micro-switch to a pressure sensitive switch assembly, allowing an agent used to mechanical trigger assemblies to put pressure on the trigger without accidentally triggering the firearm. The trigger guard can be removed completely so the pistol can be used by troops in power armor as well as cyborgs, and is often bored out by NEMA armorers to allow personnel wearing body armor to have an easier time getting their finger into the trigger guard. The weapon was weighted under the grips in order to make it more balanced and improved accuracy, in addition the weapon contains recoil compensator as the weapon's magnetic compression/firing system causes a noticeable recoil. In low noise environments the hiss of the chamber injectors can be heard, as can the charging of the magnetic system's capacitors. This weapon can be used underwater, but the damage capacity of the weapon is highly variable, as water often contains more than just hydrogen and oxygen atoms. In addition, there have been reports of this weapon exploding as the electron stripping action encounters an unstable atom suspended in the water. Often, during underwater use, the weapon is fitted with a compressed air cylinder on the left side to provide air to the weapon without the worry of water getting into the injectors. The weapon was modified for burst fire for both the US Marine Corps, NEMA, and the Mexican Army. The burst setting does suffer from reduced accuracy due to the recoil inherent in the magnetic system During the Cataclysm, there was some concern that the weapon would misfire or jam due to the microfine ash, however the pistol operated just fine, with the slight exception of requiring cleaning more often. No increase in wear on the injectors was noticed. During Rifts these weapons are often found in a hand me down state, often well care for. The injectors are simple to remanufacture/clean, and late model combustion engine fuel injectors can be used to replace damaged or old injectors. The Coalition States considers this pistol to be a "legacy weapon" of those families who never sunk so low as to lose their heritage, and so the possession of this firearm, while technically a Class A Felony, is often ignored as long as the weapon has not been used in a crime.
The common illustration used for this weapon was misprinted, showing a weapon using a laser sight. Weight: 3 lbs Length: 7.9 inches Caliber: 2.5 cm Maximum Range: 1500m (4500 ft) Maximum Effective Range: 250m (750 ft) Typical Combat Range: <50m (<150 ft) Magazine Capacity: 21 shots/7 bursts per magazine, 45 shots/15 bursts from an extended magazine, 147 shots/29 bursts from a power pack
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Sep 28, 2014 04:49
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LSR-250 Laser Rifle The US Military had made the change to Laser Weapons in 2032, however the laser rifle they used was restricted even to NEMA forces, due to the modular design, high damage capacity, state of the art systems, and sheer expense, forcing NEMA to look over the 2027 field trials for energy weapons. One weapon stood out in regards to accuracy and penetration factor, and that was the Litton/Intel LSR-250, which failed in field testing due to its inability to modified according to military mission needs. However, it was lightweight, energy conservative, accurate, and reliable. NEMA planners immediately contacted Litton/Intel about this weapon only to find out that the production run for field testing had been discontinued and the factory retooled to put out laser guidance systems for suborbital shuttles. However, due to an agreement that NEMA would offset the restart costs, including building factories, with the understanding that weapons produced at that plant would come at a reduced cost until NEMA recouped their investment +15%, Litton/Intel built manufacturing facilities in the Mexico Protectorate of Cuba in order to bring in more jobs and raise the standard of living in that nation. In addition the crystals were manufactured in a plant on the Yucatan Peninsula, and the synthetic plastic parts were manufactured in Canada. In 2081 the rifle began being mass-produced, and went through 3 years of field testing in order to make it serviceable and acceptable for deployment. Among the problems were poor laser cleaning of the focusing crystals, shoddily built power conduits (which were manufactured in Litton/Intel's Portland, OR facility), and faulty circuitry for fire control. It took nearly three years, instead of the typical 6 months, until the weapon was finally released to NEMA. However, the weapon they received was far superior to the design specifications they had originally delivered to Litton/Intel. The LRS-250 comes with an integral energy canister, giving the weapon improved battlefield endurance, as well as a built in multi-function scope, a standard energy clip insertion point, a built in sidecar laser targeting scope with variable frequency, a buttstock cleaning/emergency kit, and could handle heavy g-shocks, electro-magnetic pulses up to the 750W range, handle water submersion, and was usable in wildly varying climates, from -45 degrees F to 145 degrees F, as well as showing limited component heat wear after extended use under those conditions. The weapon uses 6 sided crystal matrix for laser focusing, with a 2.5 cm lens aperture. The crystal can be replaced by a trained operator in under 12 seconds under field conditions if it should be damaged, and the weapon can often compensate for a damaged crystal and put out a decreased energy bolt, but fire all the same. The casing is a flat gray, with light gray pistol grips. The pistol grip has a plasticized compression grip, allowing the weapon to be used by those in armor or cyborgs, and includes a magnetic sub-plate, allowing ease of use and tight grip by power armor soldiers or agents in armor that have magnetic grip capability. The pistol grip can be easily detached and in case of emergency can be replaced with the grip from the MIP-21 or the PLP-20 when emergency field repairs are needed. The energy canister contains heavy impact shielding, as well as a significant amount of capacitance gel. However, the gel is susceptible to ionization, much like vibro-weapons, so the ability to quick charge the canister has been disabled by inline current governors. The forward grip is a light, deformable synthetic plastic, that allows the weapon to be tightly held to increase accuracy, The grip can have a bipod locked onto the front of it in order to increase weapon stability for long range shots or laser target designation. The fire selection lever can be operated from either side, allowing ease of use by right and left handed firers. In addition, due to a data sheet printing error, the rifle has the capability to engage soft targets and non-hardened targets without the massive damage that the two primary settings inflict. However, there is no annotation on the weapon itself, rather there is a slight click between safe and low power, so the weapon can be fired to cause only minor damage. The pulse setting was repeatedly attempted to be implemented, but due to the 6 sided crystal matrix of synthetic ruby, the weapon was unable to benefit from rapid bursts as the ionization of the crystal did not dissipate fast enough. The sight, mounted on the upper rear, is built into the weapon. It provides UV/IR/Nightvision, and magnification up to 10X normal vision. In addition, use of the IR2 setting allows the laser designator to be seen only by the user of the scope, the modulating frequency of the laser targeter automatically matched by the scope, preventing flickering or just plain not being seen. The laser targeting scope, mounted on the side of the barrel, has three selections: IR1/IR2/LD. IR1 is a standard visible spectrum laser that places a dot where the bolt will hit. IR2 is a modulating frequency IR beam that will rapidly disappear and flicker to viewers using IR, but remains in sight via the scope on the rifle. LD is the laser designator, providing a beam that laser guided munitions can easily follow. The "slave ports" that allow the weapon to be attached to a belt carried power pack or power armor exist on both sides of the weapon, allowing for ease of use by right or left handed shooters, but cannot be put in to use together, as the computer control circuitry overrides and locks out one port until the other is no longer receiving a charge. However, many long range operatives will hook each port to separate belt packs, allowing the weapon to be fired without reloading times when the first pack runs out of energy. The buttpack contains two space focusing crystals, tools needed to disassemble the weapon, disposable wipes for wiping down circuitry, a wire saw, the bipod (folded up), and is where extra lens caps for both the barrel and the scope are stored. During the Cataclysm, this weapon was often shelved in order for soldiers to carry weapons providing more firepower, however this weapon often remained in service with snipers and recon patrols, as its high accuracy and durability (It was actually designed to work in areas suffering volcanic activity!) made it a reliable and powerful weapon. In Rifts Earth, this weapon is seen as another "legacy weapon" that the CS turns a blind eye toward. This weapon can often be found in rural farms, in an abandoned building, or found in an arms cache from the Cataclysm days. Squiddies are very fond of this rifle, as they were armed with it when they joined the NEMA cause. Some units replace the 6-sided synthetic ruby with a 6 sided synthetic emerald for underwater work, and still others replace the ruby with 8 sided synthetic ruby crystal lattices, giving it comparable firepower to the LGR-360 and only increasing the weight by 2 ounces. Weight: 5 lbs Length: 39.6" Caliber: 2.5 cm Maximum Range: 2500m (7500 ft) Maximum Effective Range: 1000m (3000 ft) Typical Combat Range: 450m (1350 ft) Magazine Capacity: 21 shots light/10 heavy shots via standard magazine, 36 light shots/15 heavy shots via extended magazine, internal canister provides 120 light shots or 75 heavy shots, belt power pack provides 168 light shots or 84 heavy shots.
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Sep 28, 2014 04:55
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LGR-360 Laser Grenade Rifle While the US and Canadian military used modular designs for their combat rifles, NEMA chose to simply add in a heavy rifle with indirect fire capabilities built into the weapon rather than field the modular system. Many members of NEMA were not in fact military, but instead police officers, SWAT specialists, intelligence agents, and firemen, despite the name "Northern Eagle Military Alliance". The organization was tasked with fighting terrorists, responding to hurricanes, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions (including the famed Mexico City Eruption of 2041). Modular weapon systems take extensive training and practice, and NEMA chose to forgo that in favor of a heavy weapon that only select members of a fire team would need to be trained on. The initial choice of NEMA was the Dow/Chrysler Laser Fusion Systems Rifle, but field tests showed that a sharp impact on the fusion containment system would cause the magnetic bottle to fail, often with catastrophic results (six NEMA Future Warfighter Program testers were killed in less than 30 days from fusion bottle ruptures) and so the weapon was dropped from the program, despite the heavy damage output from the weapon and it's extended battlefield endurance. The LFS was sold to Peruvian military forces, who added in a failsafe feature to the micro-fusion plant, but the weapon still had the disconcerting habit of detonating at times for reasons unknown. Out of the field tests, a 2 year exercise in which hundreds of NEMA Future Warfighter Program testers used the weapons in every environment imaginable and under extreme conditions that were often accused of only existing in the minds of the testing directors (Which later would become the defacto battlefield of Chaos Earth), resulted in the Litton/Gerber LGR-360 Laser Rifle/Grenade Launcher combination being chosen for use. The forward frame is manufactured at the Gerber Canada Ontario plant, the lower receiver is manufactured in central Mexico, with the laser crystals being manufactured in the Dominican Republic, and the circuitry manufactured at the Litton Grass Valley plant as well as the Gerber Corpus Christi plant. The weapon is assembled at the Litton/Gerber manufacturing plant on the Baja California Peninsula. The LGR-360 is a sturdy and reliable weapon, able to function after repeated abuse and with minimal maintenance, even under the harshest conditions. (Including the famed subarctic volcanic eruption test that washed out roughly 80% of the contenders) The frame and moving parts are made up of synthetic plastics and lightweight molecularly bonded alloys, with all moving parts surfaces coated with Nu-Teflon alloy in order to lower wear on the grenade launcher parts. The frame is a dark gray, with light gray grips. The buttstock contains the standard maintenance compartment containing the buttkit that allows the user to maintain it under field conditions without needing the services of a unit armorer for minor repairs. The sight lenses have non-reflecting coating to avoid "lens flash" during covert situations, and the sight is much more studier than it looks, capable of withstanding up to a 9G shock, or a direct impact by small arms fire without failing. (In one instance a counter-sniper using a chemical firearm shot at the teams sniper, hitting the lens, and not even scratching it) The underslung grenade launcher has an internal magazine capable of holding 7 30mm micro-grenades, and although NEMA doctrine frowns on it, many operatives carry the weapon with a grenade loaded into the chamber, bringing to total rounds carried by the weapon to eight. However, the grenade launcher is known to misfire upon receiving a hard jolt, and more than report of the weapon going off when dropped, or when an operative dove to the prone position and the weapon struck the ground sharply. NEMA Directive 97564-A specifically forbids the weapon to be carried with a grenade loaded into the chamber. The buttstock is the common collapsible version, able to adjust within a six inch space, extending it as far as 3 inches beyond normal setting to three inches shorter. When stored in a weapons rack, the buttstock is always compressed to its shortest length. Behind the sight, on the top of the weapon, is an access panel that allows the weapon to be hooked into a smart frame firing system, as well as be linked to a power pack or power armor power port. In addition a unit armorer can change the frequency of the laser rifle manually via this access panel. In addition the weapon can have the variable frequency circuitry added into the weapon via this access port, of course the manual adjustment circuitry and the smartframe interface chipsets have to be removed. In addition to this a cable can be run from the panel to a soldier's HUD interface socket in order to use a suit of armor's HUD to assist in targeting. The scope itself provides passive nightvision, IR, UV, telescopic sighting, indirect firing angle assistance, rangefinder, and variable IR vision. In addition the scope selector function can be used via button on top of the scope, trigger tap, eyelid blinking selection, or armor HUD interlink. The indirect fire assistance is used by setting the crosshairs over a target and selecting it, then selecting 30mm grenade launcher. The onboard computer will compute the firing angle, and show the angle in the scope. Once the weapon is lifted to the correct angle, a tone will sound within the user's helmet, or the sight picture will flash a "LOCKED" LED in the upper right corner. The Variable IR is for use with the laser target designator, where the IR beam rapidly cycles through frequencies to avoid being seen by enemy soldiers equipped with IR vision enhancement. The scope is automatically synched to the variable IR targeter, allowing the user to use the beam without any difficulty. When attached to a helmet HUD, the firer may use any fire support systems in the armor to assist targeting with the weapon. In addition, the sight picture can either be placed in front of the eyes, or in the upper corner of the HUD, allowing the user to extend the weapon over/around cover and get an accurate sight view of what the terrain is, or the actions of enemy personnel without exposing themselves. The grenade launcher is a 30mm grenade launcher, with an integral magazine that can contain up to seven grenades. The grenades are loaded into the clip from the bottom of the launcher, with the cocking mechanism in the forward position. The weapon reloads with a manual cocking mechanism much like 20th Century shotguns. This system has shown to be easily fouled by volcanic ash if care is not taken to clean the system regularly. One design flaw allows the grenades to be loaded backwards by inattentive operators, and this flaw was corrected in the A1 series released in 2087, in addition to an after-factory modification kit allowing the problem to be fixed at a unit armorer level. The grenade launcher uses the same safety mechanism and trigger as the laser rifle portion. The 30mm grenades are electrically fired rounds containing chemical propellant in solid form, negating the existence of spent shell casings. However, if the weapon is loaded improperly, the grenade fires into the rifle itself, often detonating the energy clip as well as destroying the weapon in a hail of shrapnel. However, in 2089 the grenades were modified for a heavier payload, the removal of the propellant, and are fired via magnetic acceleration, this A2 version had only replaced 60% of the in use stock by the time of the Cataclysm. However, not all units went to the A2, as the grenade launcher could not be used without an energy source, and each grenade launch used up a single shot worth the energy. The laser focusing matrix is synthetic diamond, "grown" in an 8-sided crystal and laser "cleaned" of doping elements within the crystal. Use does degrade due to firing, and has an estimated life of 125,000 shots before degradation of the focusing crystal begins to affect the weapon's performance. However, the scope does signal that the crystal is starting to decay by flashing a yellow LED in the lower right of the scope picture. The crystal can be replaced in under 15 seconds by a trained operator under battlefield conditions. The weapon can be set to burst setting, however the burst setting puts additional wear on the crystal focusing matrix. The burst setting allows time for ionized air in front of the weapon from degrading the following laser "bolts" by allowing a split second for ionization to dissipate. The LGR-360 also has a flange on the bottom of the handgrip that was overlooked in standard datasheets. This flange allows the weapon to be hooked into power armor or smartframe equipped mounts and the combat computer of either one to use the scope for additional data. Additionally, the trigger assembly can be slid forward to lock onto the "clip" just to the rear of the magazine well so that the weapon can be used by heavy cyborgs or power armor troopers. The buttkit contains a cleaning kit, 1 extra focusing crystal, tools to disassemble the weapon, a small camouflage net to camouflage the weapon, as well as a plastic sheeting to protect the weapon's optics during sand storms. One of the noted problems with this weapon, in addition to the problems with the grenade launcher, is that the fire selector is only on the left side of the weapon, making it more difficult to use for left handed firers. Additionally the weapon often becomes stuck in one firing mode or the other after approximately 6 months of service, and often after 12 months of service (without proper maintenance and service) the weapon has a tendency to "stick", with burst fire mode producing fully automatic fire until the energy source is depleted. In very rare cases it fires a solid lasing "beam" until either the focusing crystal shatters or the energy source is depleted. Variants: LGR-360A3 This weapon possesses a canister energy cell like the one mounted on the LSR-250, however it was contracted for production in 2097 and less than 15% of NEMA forces have been equipped with these upgraded variants. The addition of the canister cell adds 1.25 lbs to the weapon's weight. During Chaos Earth and the Second Dark Ages, this weapon was a mainstay of combat forces. Regular maintenance kept down the "lasing problem" and grenades were easily manufactured. In Rifts Earth this is considered a legacy weapon, however the Coalition States demands that the grenade launcher and the burst fire mode of the weapon be deactivated and registered as such with the databases. This weapon is often found in ruins, in caches, and in the New West, and is considered a steady and reliable weapon, although often the variable frequency circuitry is missing, as well as the mounting data-flange being missing. Weight: 7 lbs (unloaded) 7.3 lbs (loaded) 8.1 lbs (with grenades) Length: 40.14" Caliber: 2.75cm/30mm Maximum Range: 2000m/500m (6000/1500 ft)(grenade launcher-propellant rounds) or 750m (2250 ft)(grenade launcher-magnetic launching) Maximum Effective Range: 750m/300m (2250 ft/900 ft) (grenade launcher-propellant) or 500m (1500 ft)(grenade launcher-magnetic launching) Typical Combat Range: 450m (1350 ft) Magazine Capacity: 420 low power/21 single blasts/6 bursts from eclip, 630 low power shots/ 31 single shots/9 bursts from an extended e-clip, internal canister provides 2000 low power shots/100 single blasts/33 bursts, belt power pack provides 3000 low power shots/147 single shots/49 bursts. The grenade launcher holds 7 in the magazine (9 for the A2)
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Sep 28, 2014 05:00
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PR-470 Plasma Rifle After the 2054 "Panama Canal Incident" NEMA realized it was going to have go against public opinion and politicians promises and start to field heavy weaponry that could take down armored vehicles and power armor. The Ugandan Liberation Front had nearly overwhelmed the NEMA peacekeeping task force stationed at the Panama Canal with two "Hyena" power armors (Nigerian knock-off's of the NEMA Bulldog) despite the fact that the Ugandan terrorists were outnumbered 250 to 1. A call was put out to manufacturers to showcase various weapons, and the NEMA Future Warfighter Program was reopened. After testing ended in 2057, three weapons had been chosen to expand the NEMA arsenal despite public outcry against the NEMA "anti-terrorist/peacekeepers" possession military grade heavy weaponry. The three weapons performed admirably until the late 2070's, when again the Future Warfighter Program began field testing replacement weapons. The PR-470 is joint manufactured by Pontiac and Regal Arms. The compression and magnetic components are produced by Regal Arms at three factories, one in northern Mexico, one in Alberta, Canada, and one in South Carolina, America. The frame and electronic components are produced by Pontiac at their factory in Detroit. The weapon is assembled in Florida and Ciduad Juarez. In 2081 the PR-470A2 was chosen to be the next generation plasma weapon, with an upgrade available for the venerable PR-470 plasma rifle, allowing NEMA to cheaply and effectively upgrade and keep NEMA armories containing a standard weapon. As an additional bonus, troops and agents trained on the PR-470 system would not need to be retrained, doctrine would not need to be altered, and the support systems for the twenty year old weapon would not need to be replaced. The PR-470 functions by ionizing the air within the chamber, and then magnetically compressing the ionized gas (ie: plasma) until compression massively heats up the ionized gas, usually to temperatures in excess of 4000 degrees Fahrenheit. Once the gas is ionized, heated, and compressed, electrons are added to the gas, positively charging the atoms, which are already in a state of flux, and making the plasma more effectively effected by magnetic fluxes. Once that occurs, the magnetic bottle "ruptures" and the plasma is jettisoned in the direction of the "rupture". Once the ball of superheated ionized charged matter (commonly referred to as plasma) strikes an object, the massive transfer of heat and electrons results in most solid matter turning to liquid, liquids vaporizing, and gas being torn into its component atoms. The PR-470 has a lightweight and sturdy frame made out of advanced polymers and alloys that can resist heat transfer from the plasma creation process, as well as not be effected by magnetics. The frame has a built in bipod system at the bottom front of the weapon. Despite the complexity of the weapon, the PR-470 proved to be more reliable than initial estimates thought. However, the forward magnetic guidance rings had a tendency to lose superconductivity after more than 20 plasma blasts, resulting in the assistant operator having to replace the rings, often under fire and in bad conditions, or risk the plasma liberating into the end of the barrel. However, this problem was fixed in 2059 with the A1 series, and the upgrade quickly applied to existing PRC-470's. The scope provides laser targeting (necessary for the correct computations regarding the plasma blast), telescopic vision, passive night vision, IR, VIR, UV, and active night vision. However, the first runs of the PR-470 did not provide flare compensation, so that a shot from the weapon overloaded the optics for critical seconds (3-12 seconds). This was quickly fixed in 2058, and the scope was replaced. The Variable IR targeting laser is often used by another soldier to "laze" a target for the PR-470 operator to shoot. Typically a forward scout will identify hardened targets or military grade vehicles/armor, and laze the target. In order to confirm the target, the designator will be rapidly turned off and on (or "flickered") with the VIR targeting laser, and the PR-470 operator locks onto the end of the beam and fires. In teams with multiple PR-470's, often only the team leader will laze a target, with the rest of the team using the team leaders VIR beam to lock onto. The energy canister is usually utilized by all PR-470 operators, with spares carried in a hip satchel, as the weapon is a known voracious energy consumer. The A2 addressed the energy consumption problem and actually managed to decrease the energy usage by 25%. Use of the bipod is suggested whenever it is possible, as the weapon has a forcible kick (often referred to as the equivalent of being kicked in the chest), to reduce recoil and improve accuracy. The weapon is often mounted on vehicle ring mounts, used in static defenses, carried by power armor troops or cyborgs, or used in a gryo-stabalization harness. The PR-470 has seen limited deployment by NEMA, however most NEMA armories contain at least 1 of these weapons per combat squad, and one per three power armors. While this weapon can be hooked into power armor power supplies, the fact that it produces a sudden loss of power for moment (.25 seconds) is enough to discourage all but the most confident pilots from using the power interlink. During Chaos Earth and Second Dark Ages, this heavy weapon saw a lot of use. However, not many survived longer than 3 years of operation, the problem with loss of superconductivity in the magnetic acceleration rings rearing its ugly head and rendering the weapon useless at best, dangerous to the operators at worst. (Reports have been confirmed of the plasma blast liberating the barrel, or backflowing into the chamber) Rifts Earth this weapon is considered highly illegal in CS territory, but is occasionally found on the Black Market. Once in a great while one will be found in a cache, or in the ruins of a city. Possession of this weapon in CS Territory is a Class A Felony. On Rifts Earth the weapon is often repaired by local weaponsmiths and returned to service for some town militias, put in use by mercenary units, or carried by cyborgs. Most of the time the CS claims that the weapon is NOT a NEMA weapon, but rather a black market knockoff of their own plasma rifle. Weight: 8lbs Length: 48" Caliber: 4.5cm Maximum Range: 550m (1650 ft) Maximum Effective Range: 500m (1500 ft) Typical Combat Range: 400m (1200 ft) Magazine Capacity: A1-5 shots with e-clip, 7 shots with an extended e-clip, 15 with e-canister, 85 with power pack; A2 7 shots per e-clip, 19 shots with extended e-clip, 21 shots with canister, 47 shots with power pack (the 147 is a datasheet misprint). All three power sources may be combined.
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Sep 28, 2014 05:05
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PR-476 Plasma Cannon In 2095 Pontiac and Regal Arms put forth a design to NEMA Future Warfighter Program officials, showcasing a new plasma "cannon" that had been turned down by the US military, which was using the GM version. The new design has several advancements in compression, including the ability to rapidfire and carry missiles without concern of heat migration along the frame. For the next year, NEMA Future Warfighter field tested the weapon, and was delighted with its performance. While front heavy and somewhat unwieldy, the weapon performed stellarly when used by armor pilots, as well as making an excellent vehicle mounted weapon or static defense weapon. In addition to improvements in power usage, compression times (brought down from 1 second per compression to less than 1/10th of a second), range, and the inclusion of a "minimum range" for the use of the weapon, the weapon also featured less moving parts, lack of "compression/launching" rings (a major improvement), and more accurate targeting. To top it off, the weapon was cheaper than the PR-470 by 15%, a savings that would allow more of these weapons to be placed into the NEMA table of organization and equipment. The weapon was approved for distribution for fiscal year 2098, with the first weapons being delivered November 2097 with the intention of retiring the venerable but problematic PR-470 plasma rifle, or at least supplementing units firepower with the new weapon. The PR-476 is manufactured by Regal Arms and Pontiac Security Technologies (Best known to NEMA and the public for the MX-366 and MX-422 combat vehicles). Factories that previously produced the PR-470 were retooled in less than 30 days by Pontiac and Regal Arms after running off several million batches of space parts for the old PR-470 and delivering them to NEMA for stockpiling. The compression and magnetic components are produced by Regal Arms at three factories, one in northern Mexico, one in Alberta, Canada, and one in South Carolina, America. The frame and electronic components are produced by Pontiac at their factory in Detroit, while the missile launching and targeting system was produced by Pontiac in their eastern Washington facility. The weapon is assembled in Florida and Ciduad Juarez. The weapon creates plasma as per the PR-470, but creates lighter "plasma packets" that are compressed further. While this lowers the damage capacity of the weapon, this process allows faster plasma "bolt" generation, as well as reducing wear on the electromagnetic systems of the weapon. Next generation synthetic plastics and neo-carbide construction minimizes heat migration, something that the PR-470 suffered from, as well as decreasing launcher cool down times by eliminating the barrel. The electronic components are well insulated and do not suffer from errors due to excessive heat transfer. This allowed the range to be increased beyond that of the PR-470, both the maximum range and the maximum effective range. The casing consists of three pieces. The left half of the weapon, the right half of the weapon, and the boxy scope that extends from the side. The sight can be locked into position on either side, or above the weapon, as chosen by the wielder. This minimizes the amount of debris or dust that can enter the weapon (another problem with the old PR-470) and affect the components are reduce accuracy. The mini-missile launcher incorporates the MISTLETOE guidance system, allowing the user of the weapon to lock onto a vehicle and track it, guiding the weapon into the vehicle. With the inclusion of the laser targeting system, the operator can make pinpoint strikes with the missile or the plasma bolt to enemy vehicles, structures, and armors. The lower shoulder brace can be swung to either side, allowing the user to shoot from the hip, often looking down onto the targeting screen. The sensors for the targeting system are located at the front of the weapon, allowing the user to move the targeting system output screen to any needed angle without losing sight of the target. In addition the system can be remote fired, the missile homing in on a secondary beam locked into the targeting system by the controller, and the plasma "bolts" firing by a simple order, allowing the system to be used as a remote ambush weapon, or hooked into a smartframe to provide automated ambushes. The scope utilizes IR/VIR/UV/Passive nightvision, as well as telescopic, a thermo imager, and a rangerfinder. The "scope" is a boxy looking attachment that actually contains advanced computer support. A vehicle or area can be "locked on" via profile, thermal signature, or "lazed" to provide a missile lock. In addition, the scope can sight other variable laser targeters in order to allow the operator to fire over an obstacle with the missiles launcher, and the missile will lock onto the designated beam and follow it to the target. In addition the combat programs will pinpoint known weaknesses in identified power armors and robot power armors, so that the operator can lock in that section, or a gunner's assistant can "laze" and the weapon will strike at that area. Additionally, the weapon will not fire plasma bursts or missiles at targets below the minimum range. The read section has both a data flange, as well as the ammunition port (top) and the power lead (bottom). However, there have been reports that copper was substituted for gold on the power connector leads, resulting in corrosion that may prevent the weapon from behind connected to an outside power source due to corrosion debris or pitting on the connecting ring. Most units have replaced the copper or gold rings with superconductor rings, and Regal Arms is looking into where the "error" is occurring. (Rumor states that Regal Arms intends on prosecuting whoever is replacing the rings with substandard parts) The weapon can handle heavy G shocks, surviving repeated 8.5G shocks, as well as being unaffected by weather or airborne debris. Additionally the wielder can add in a energy canister by removing either side (there are 2 energy canister cradles, one per side) and placing the canister inside. If the weapon contains one or more energy canisters, it can be hooked to an external power supply and the canisters charged at the rate of 4 hours per canister. While the missile launcher can handle any type of missile, manufacturer recommendation is for Regal Arms smart missiles only, and plasma missiles at that. Weight: 12 lbs Length: 38" Caliber: 4.5 cm/5" (rockets) Minimum Range: 25m/50m (75 ft/150 ft) Maximum Range: 625 m/2 miles (1875 ft/2 miles) Maximum Effective Range: 550m/1mile (1650 ft/1 mile) Typical Combat Range: 400m/1 mile (1200 ft/1 mile) Magazine Capacity: 10 shots/3 bursts per e-clip, 13 shots/4 bursts per extended e-clip, 21 single shots/7 bursts per canister, 65 single shots/21 bursts per power pack. (The original datasheet was in error)
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Sep 28, 2014 05:08
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GLR-540 When the North American Alliance Pact of 2035 was signed into reality and NEMA was created on paperwork, the fledgling NEMA began looking for weapons and armor to field. Stockton Weapons Development fielded an unusual entry to the Future Warfighter Program in 2037 (When NEMA was still deciding on what weapons/armor/etc to use alliance-wide) for the heavy weapons entry. While other companies were offering prototype railguns, laser rifles, ion blasters, and particle beam projectors, SWD offered a modification on the old Ripple Effect LLC XRGL-40, this time reducing the grenade size to 30mm from the old 40mm, using synthetic plastics and hyper-alloys to reduce weight and increase frame strength. The move to 12mm grenades allowed the weapon to carry 60 in the revolving magazine rather than the old 6 round cylinder. In addition, SWD made the magazine removable, rather than the old magazine, which required an operator to hand load the shells one at a time, moving the cylinder for each chamber. The new version could be reloaded by removing the magazine, opening up the back of the magazine, and placing the grenades in nose first. The weapon was showcased using a variety of munitions, mostly 30mm remakes of the old 40mm cartridges still in use by the US Army and the US Marine Corps. The weapon proved capable of taking on light armored vehicles, hardened enemy structures, and disrupting troop formations. Despite the snickers of manufacturers showcasing high tech still in prototype phase weaponry, SWD (owned by two brothers from Stockton CA and their college friend who was interning at NASA, who built the prototype weapon in their garage and ordered the prototype ammunition from a Russian munitions producer, and had the prototype weapon manufactured by a friend in NASA) won the contract within 3 months, while the other weapons were still in controlled environment testing. SWD immediately purchased an abandoned cannery in San Francisco, an old steel mill in South Dakota, a shoe factory in Chicago, and an old foundry in Maine, as well as two old Mexican canneries, an old whaling station in Canada, and an empty tract of land in the outback of Canada. They quickly leveraged their military contract into several hundred million in cash loans, and retooled the factories to produce the weapons, and build 2 factories that produced nothing but 30mm grenades. Within 6 months of receiving the contract, NEMA received their first shipment of 250,000 grenades and 12,500 grenade launchers. When it was discovered that NASA advanced material labs were used to produce the six GLR-540's that were entered into the Future Warfighter contest, a litigation against the three owners of SWD by NASA. However, NEMA stepped in and shut down the lawsuit, citing NASA's failure to launch a NEMA specific GPS system into orbit as breech of their contract that would be overlooked if the lawsuit was dropped, sweetening the deal by offering NASA a 5.5% cut of the payments. Seeing the possibility for millions of dollars a year to be added into the anemic NASA budget, when the brothers admitted fault and upped the percentage to 12.5% NASA signed onto the deal. The GRL-540 is a sturdy weapon, which somewhat takes the brute force "if ain't broke don't fix it" attitude toward the weapon. It is virtually indistinguishable from earlier magazine fed grenade launchers, with the exception of the smaller caliber. The shroud around the 30mm barrel is an advanced polymer heat shroud, enabling the user to balance/steady the weapon by holding onto the barrel. The topside handle can be detached, and is also used as the tool to open the magazine for loading. The weapon is often carried on a sling by operators, and despite the weight is often issued in remote rural areas. The pistol grip is easily interchangeable with the grip on a laser rifle, the fire selector switch is operable from either side of the weapon, and the mechanical sight performs well even under the worst conditions. Some versions were mounted on vehicles and converted to fully automatic to give rural NEMA forces an additional punch without having to resort to military grade heavy weaponry. The GLR-540A1 was submitted in 2055, which now included a laser rangefinder and computer assisted targeting angle software. The weapon still used caseless solid chemical fuel launching, despite many companies moving the magnetic acceleration. This prevented the weapon from showing up as an energy source or source of peaking EM radiation. During the test a squad of gyroharness wearing soldiers armed with the GLR-540A1 were able to hide behind a hill and blow a Chromium Guardsman apart before it could engage them, solidifying the contract for SWD. In 2084 the company submitted the munition it took them 30 years to finally get working right. A 30mm rocket capable of trajectory adjustment and limited gliding. This revolutionary rocket was capable of performing top down attacks, perform terminal guidance, and be lazed in by forward spotters. NEMA leaped on the munition like starving wolves, but before more than a few thousand could be manufactured the Free Canada Separatists terrorist organization blew up the Canadian plant, destroying the technical specifications of the munition, the three owners (who were the company's driving force), and 12 NEMA officials visiting the plant. Sadly, most of the 12mm rockets were used in the early days of the Cataclysm, and none remain. The GLR-540A4, which contains only minor changes, which include official automatic fire selection, a vehicle mounting point, and a scope that could be used unpowered, or powered to provide VIR sighting. During the Cataclysm and the Second Dark Ages, a couple of the factories were brought online and restarted, producing this weapon enmasse. Ammunition was hardly a problem, as there were literally billions of rounds in storage. Post Rifts, this weapon disappeared for ages, until being brought back by Iron Heart Industries, who claim that they researched and developed it, when in reality that unearthed one of SWD's old plants. Weight: 7 lbs (empty), 10 lbs (6-round drum), 36 lbs (loaded-60 round mag) Length: 30.3" Caliber: 30mm Maximum Range: 1200m (3600 ft) Maximum Effective Range: 800m (2400 ft) Typical Combat Range: 400m (1200 ft) Magazine Capacity: 6 for a mini-drum, 60 for a heavy support drum. I upgraded the stats to reflect real world weaponry. See M-32 MGL and check the ranges, weight, and other data. 30mm Rounds Sadly, the 30mm rocket is lost, but the following are standard rounds still in production. LE-Low Explosive:This grenade uses low explosive, mostly to use it against non-hardened vehicles and structures. HE-High Explosive: This is the standard thought of round, a simple high explosive round that produces almost no shrapnel, but instead kills and injures and causes damage via direct contact with a high explosive. HEDP-High Explosive Dual Purpose: This round is a high explosive core surrounded by notched wire wound around the core, and an engraved steel jacket. This round provides high explosive damage as well as massive shrapnel to a 30 foot radius. HEAT-High Explosive Anti-Tank, this one contains a micro-explosively forged penetrator and can penetrate up to 1.5 inches of modern hyperalloy armor. APERS-Antipersonell: This is basically a 12mm shotgun shell Stun: A common riot control round, this is a beanbag round intended on stunning rather than killing. Initial tests with rubber bullets showed they had a 15% chance of killing at target, with an 80% chance of killing those struck in the head or small children. Flare Cluster: This fires 2-5 parachute flares that burn for 60 seconds. Usually used to illuminate a battlefield. IR and UV flares are available. WP Smoke-White Phosphorous smoke is still under debate on whether or not it is a chemical weapon, but NEMA could care less. White phosphorous burns at a high temperature to produce thick clouds of noxious smoke, the WP continuing to produce smoke for as long as 10 minutes. Smoke- Normal smoke rounds come in green, red, white, yellow, purple, blue, and orange. They produce smoke for 5 minutes. HC Smoke-High Concentrate Smoke: This High Concentrate smoke is capable of defeating thermovision systems, as well as being nearly impossible to penetrate with radar due to high vaporized metal content. However, this round is suspected of causing lung damage. Microcrystal Suspension Mist: A revolutionary idea from SWD, the micro-crystal grenades erupts in a spray of fine mist, each droplet containing two of more small micro-prism that scatter and defuse laser beams, drastically reducing their effectiveness. Lawsuits from the Mexico City WTO riots claim that the microcrystals cause extensive lung damage, and even death from lung hemorrhages/heart damage. Microcrystals will stay in the air for up to 4-5 minutes. Chaff: Useful for modern warfare, the chaff grenade detonates and scatters ultra-fine mylar fibers cut to specific wavelengths to cause a solid mass to appear on radar, as well as scatter the radar beams. Chaff clouds stay in place, slowly drifting downwards, for up to 30 minutes, however breeze, wind, or an explosion can scatter it into uselessness. Illum- A standard illumination grenade, it drifts slowly downward and burns quite brightly. It will illuminate a 500m radius for 15 minutes.
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Sep 28, 2014 05:11
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ML-557 Mini-Missile Rifle With the addition of combat cyborgs to the NEMA forces in the years following the Congo/Sudanese War of 2058 (One of NEMA's toughest challenges as world peacekeepers in the early years) NEMA once again opened the Future Warfighter Program in order to develop heavy weapons for the powered armor soldiers, cyborgs, and other amplified humans. Field testing on weapons was done for over 3 years before the Program authorized three total weapon systems to be fielded for cyborgs and power armor soldiers. The ML-557 Mini-Missile "Rifle" (Known as the ML-557 Magazine Fed Light Rocket System in military circles) was submitted to the 2060 Future Warfighter Program by Madson-Lenski Missile Armament LLC, which normally produced the missile systems and munitions for NEMA, and alliance militaries. MLMA LLC had also won the contracts to supply micro and mini-missiles to the US, Canadian, and Mexican military, which gave them an influx of cash to expand their R&D projects, in addition to already having mini-missile designs to submit to NEMA. By utilizing prototype synthetic plastics, ultralight composites, and alloys that possessed extremely low heat transfer properties, as well as a "cold" blowback system and a tight ECCM package built into the weapon. The weapon also came standard with a bipod, vehicle mounting point, laser designator, optical guidance system, and a multi-function sight. Surprisingly the entire package was wrapped up with a 65 KCr price tag, making it highly affordable. (MLMA-LLC planned on making the money on their line of miniaturized smart missiles that their R&D was designing, not the weapon itself) Surprisingly enough, this weapon proved rugged, durable, and not prone to damage when used in high stress environments by power armor clad soldiers or cyborgs (which often showed a tendency to break handgrips due to the sheer force, usually measured in the tons, that their hands could put out. On top of the weapon is a detachable laser designator, that enables the user to either laze in a target while holding the weapon, give the targeting device to a forward scout, or set it down, position it manually, and fire from a distance. The laser used the extreme upper ranges of "IR visible" light, dancing across frequencies with such speed that it was nearly impossible to lock onto the beam unless the proper algorithm was shared. While the detachable sight shared the algorithm with the launcher itself, for multiple launchers to home in on the same same sight (usually when in use by a forward observer or set in a static position) the users of the weapon had to engage the battlefield network. The screen/keyboard system contained an internal firmware smarthframe allowing the weapon to be set up and fire autonomously at pre-identified targets or targets painted with the detachable lazing mount and the "fire" control activated. Additionally, it can be used to set up the battlefield network, remote view through different weapons or detachable sights, as well as download satellite maps, area maps, or used to designate targets to the missiles inertial mapping software for precision strikes at a distance. The rear sight is only engaged when the weapon is in direct fire use, with the forward screen folded safely against the top of the weapon. It uses thermographic, passive night-vision, IR, VIR, and UV sightings, as well as electronic telescopic enhancements. It can also be removed and given to a forward scout or placed at a specific point to allow the user of the weapon watch what the sight sees on the battlescreen. The battlefield network interface also shows what the missile is seeing during flight in either a small window in the upper corner, or taking up 80% of the center of the screen. A retractable joystick can be used to provide terminal guidance on the missiles. The weapon bipod swings down, and while still collapsed can be used as a forward handgrip, and provides the weapon with excellent recoil compensation, as it acts in concert with the internal recoil compensation hardware. A secondary battle screen, deployed and put in use when the main battlefield network interface is missing or destroyed, displays only what the weapon's sights are seeing. The weapon is loaded by inserting the missile through the feeding port on the right side, and using the cocking lever (located just above the lower center handgrip) to pull the missile back into the magazine and rotate the magazine down. The missiles are highly complex weapons with both flight and terminal guidance performance, internal inertial mapping hardware, visual profile recognition, and usually programmed for top-down attacks (making this weapon very effective against foes with a head, as the missile detonates above the head and fires an explosively forged penetrator straight through the top of the skull), and able to be controlled by the launcher for minimal flight adjustments. The missile contains a new, multi-effect warhead which can penetrate 1,000mm Explosive Reactive Armour or Rolled Homogenous Armour, up to 75mm of neo-tungsten carbide polyceramic hyper-alloy, or more than 3m of reinforced ferrocrete. A direct attack mode has been added as well as improved anti-jamming capability. The missile uses super-pressurized nitrogen to expel itself from the launcher, and engages its primary rocket thruster approximately 50m from the launcher, leaving no heat signature for the enemy to follow back to the launcher. During the Cataclysm and the Second Dark Ages, this weapon was issued at least one to a squad, and was popular for it's ability to provide perimeter surveillance and battlefield network capability. Even after the majority of the smart missiles were gone for the system, many squads carried the empty launcher just for the utility. During the Dark Ages once in awhile an explorer would trip an automated smartframe ambush, rockets ripping out of the ruins to target those unfortunate enough to have tripped its attack protocols. This led to stories of ghosts using weapons of the Neeman's to attack those who dared enter the cities. On Rifts Earth this weapon is highly illegal in the CS territory (who look more to capture intact ones for examination), as well as rarely found with any of the battlefield network accessories. Usually it is found as a stripped down, fire and forget, sightless "rifle" when in the hands of those who inherited it from generation to generation or those who find one in the ruins. However, in 92PA, Iron Heart Weapons Manufacturing Research Division managed to get their hands on 22 of these weapons, complete with datasheets and instructions and immediately began reverse engineering the whole system. Weight: 27 lbs (empty) 40 lbs (fully loaded) Length: 40" Caliber: 68mm Maximum Range: 2100m (6300 ft) Maximum Effective Range: 1600m (4800 ft) Typical Combat Range: 300m (900 ft) Magazine Capacity: 6 (This launcher was made comparable to recent advances in the field of anti-tank systems)
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Sep 28, 2014 05:16
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R-660 Light Rail Gun With the addition of combat cyborgs to the NEMA forces in the years following the Congo/Sudanese War of 2058 NEMA once again opened the Future Warfighter Program in order to develop heavy weapons for the powered armor soldiers, cyborgs, and other amplified humans. Field testing on weapons was done for over 3 years before the Program authorized three total weapon systems to be fielded for cyborgs and power armor soldiers. The R-660 Light Rail Gun System was submitted by Pontiac, which had made a name for itself in magnetic propulsion systems, as well as its Naval Armaments and Vehicle Development and Deployment Division (NAVD3) (including highly secret work on the Submersible Carrier Project) programs and of course, the feather in its cap, the Chromium Guardsman Primary Rail Gun System. The system passed with flying colors, leaving the other manufacturers in the dust, and the weapon was built in five stages, with factories in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The lower framework was made in Darango, Mexico; the upper framework was made in Regina Canada, the rail systems were made in Merida Mexico (on the Yucatan Peninsula), the electronics were made in Portland, Oregon; and the weapon was assembled in Detriot. The system requires either a two man team utilizing the front bipod, a static emplacement using a tripod, mounted on a vehicle, as a supplementary weapon for power armors, or packed by cybernetic infantry soldiers. The system uses a pair of electromagnetic superconductive rails to accelerate a ferrous coated projectile at "significant" velocity, mostly limited by the applied current and the length of the rails. It is these rails that suffer the most degradation of the material as heat transfer and the collapse of air into the railgun's path cause minor stress fractures in the material. However, the life expectancy of the rails usually measure into the millions of rounds, and the onboard computer systems of modern railguns contain a rail diagnostic feature, as well as alerting the user whenever a rail gun rail falls below 60% integrity. The R-660 rail gun uses heavy duty polyceramic casings, as well as a modified Faraday Cage in order to keep the electromagnetic energy from effecting the surrounding area outside the weapon. Circuitry is precision made to be unaffected by the strong magnetic fields generated by the rails. In field testing, this light weapon was discovered to be an excellent squad automatic weapon, and as a light machinegun class weapon, it performed outstandingly. Shot groups were tightly grouped at ranges up to 4000m with computer targeting assistance and the new gyrostabalized tripod or with the built in targeting assistance computer and a vehicle mount. While targets were hit at ranges exceeding 4000m by all users (power armor, vehicle mounted, gyrostabalized, bipod fixed, cyborg infantry) the shot grouping was too dispersed for the weapon to be considered effective when firing a burst at such a range. However the "line of sight" problem became immediately obvious, as the round usually continued past the "horizon" to land as far as 12km away (7km past the horizon line of sight) and were found via transmitter impregnated rounds. Unlike those rail gun systems that were attempting to copy the "Boom Gun" Pontiac chose to use the multiple round armor ablation technique, allowing the magnetic rails to be charged once and multiple rounds be fired down the rails, thus significantly reducing energy use. The rapid striking of the target's armor resulted in microstress fractures caused by the initial rounds to be expanded on and widened by successive rounds, causing a large, irregular divot to appear in the armor. In tests against mothballed M1A4D main battle tanks, the rail gun was able to damage and eventually penetrate the tank armor by repeated precision hits to the same impact area. When tested with APDS rounds, the R-660 was found to have superior armor breaching capability, tearing through previous generation armor much more rapidly than standard "fracture rounds" (as the solid slugs fired in rapid succession were classified as). However, when compared to modern armor, the weapon was classified as a light anti-vehicle/armor weapon, used primarily for anti-personnel duties. The weapon has the ability to fire 1 round, 10 round bursts, or fully automatic. Single shot has proven useful in defeating unarmored vehicles, killing unarmored enemy personnel, and causing extensive damage to non-military watercraft. The weapon produces a loud tearing noise as the round accelerate past Mach One, and those who the round(s) travel near can hear the supersonic cracking of the round, however, it was not deemed as loud as the old US Army M2A2 .50 Caliber machinegun. In a revolutionary move, rather than use a separate power source, the R-660 system used Pontiac's new "energized" rail gun rounds. These weapons had a base of capacitance gel wrapped in superconductor foil. When the foil made contact with the rings, the capacitance gel released its energy, consuming both the gel and the foil, and powering the rail gun. However, the rail gun has shown that after several extended hours of combat use, the rails may become fouled with resolidified foil and gel material that was turned gaseous during the energy transfer. In addition to being able to use drums and magazine of rail gun munitions, NEMA requested that the weapon be able to handle belt fed ammunition, for use in fixed positions or in vehicle mounts. This was handled by having what's known as an "open drum" locked into place, with the rounds held together by light magnetism. This gives the R-660 potentially unlimited firepower when in a fixed position. One problem that the R-660 does suffer is rail overheating, which increases the resistance of the rails, and thus lowers the amount of thrust generated by the rails. Due to this, a temperature gauge is built into the internal computer targeting system, and the weapon will automatically shut down for 30-60 seconds after approximately 10 minutes of sustained fire. However, a trained assistant gunner in environmental armor can replace the rails in roughly 15 seconds. The targeting sight was deliberately kept simple, with only passive nightvision, IR, UV and telescopic systems. However, the scope can magnify up to 50X, and the crosshairs are accurate at distances up to line of sight, bringing about the cyborg infantry motto: "If it can be seen, it dies." The range and damage capability of this and its sister weapon (the R-670) led to ECM/ECCM crash programs designed to spoof targeting systems better, as line of sight was now a real engagement distance. Theories set forth on the VirtualNet claim that a misfired railgun burst was responsible for the Tangees Orbital being destroyed as it orbited earth, however the math physics support that a rail gun round does not possess significant enough velocity to break free of Earth's gravitational field (11.2 km/s). During the Apacolypse the most common problem with this weapon, as well as all rail guns, was micro-fine ferrous particles "fouling" the rails, as well as ash coating the rails being turned into a thin layer of volcanic glass on the rails, thus reducing the rails to a life expectancy of only a few hours of use before replacement. During the Second Dark Ages, this weapon was a primary defender of settlements, trader convoys, and also used by cyborg defenders/mercs/explorers. However, since the electromagnetic rails were never upgraded with modern materials before the fall, virtually all of these weapons were eventually discarded or scavenged for parts. Occasionally one shows up in caches or is found in the ruins. Additionally loss of "energized rounds" led to the rail gun having to be rewired to accept an outside energy source, often e-clips or direct link to power armor/city power grid, an expensive and time consuming modification. Weight: 40 lbs Length: 49" Caliber: 6.25mm Muzzle Velocity: 2455m/s Maximum Range: 4700m (14100 ft/2.8 miles)(est) Maximum Effective Range: 4000+m (12000+ ft/2 miles)(computer assisted), 1000m (3000 ft) (non-assisted) Typical Combat Range: 1500m (4500 ft) Magazine Capacity: 200 round short mag, 600 round drum, 200 round drum, and belt fed
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Sep 28, 2014 05:20
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R-670 With the addition of combat cyborgs to the NEMA forces in the years following the Congo/Sudanese War of 2058 NEMA once again opened the Future Warfighter Program in order to develop heavy weapons for the powered armor soldiers, cyborgs, and other amplified humans. Field testing on weapons was done for over 3 years before the Program authorized three total weapon systems to be fielded for cyborgs and power armor soldiers. The R-670 heavy Rail Gun System was submitted by Pontiac. Manufactured in the same factories as the R-660 Light Rail Gun, the R-670 was actually assembled at the Deerborn, MI Gerber plant. In the cases of both weapons, the energized rounds were built in an isolated factory south of Boise, ID. The system requires either a two man team utilizing the front bipod, a static emplacement using a tripod, mounted on a vehicle, as a supplementary weapon for power armors, or packed by cybernetic heavy infantry soldiers. This weapon was intended to be a platoon level weapon, assigned on per platoon, to provide additional heavy fire support above what the R-660 would provide. The system uses a pair of electromagnetic superconductive rails to accelerate a ferrous coated projectile at "significant" velocity, mostly limited by the applied current and the length of the rails. It is these rails that suffer the most degradation of the material as heat transfer and the collapse of air into the railgun's path cause minor stress fractures in the material. However, the life expectancy of the rails usually measure into the millions of rounds, and the onboard computer systems of modern railguns contain a rail diagnostic feature, as well as alerting the user whenever a rail gun rail falls below 60% integrity. The R-670 rail gun uses heavy duty polyceramic casings, as well as a modified Farraday Cage in order to keep the electromagnetic energy from effecting the surrounding area outside the weapon. Circuitry is precision made to be unaffected by the strong magnetic fields generated by the rails. During field testing, the weapon was virtually line of sight, only beginning to drop past 12km and usually hitting the ground roughly 17 kilometers from the firing point, in tests with transmitter impregnated test rounds. Like the R-660, the R-670 used the "energized round" system, but had power conduit hardware that allowed the weapon to be hooked into a second energy source. This allowed APDS rounds, plasma-gel rounds, and Slammer(TM) stun rounds to be used. The plasma-gel rounds were an incendiary gel surrounded by a thin layer of ferrous metal. Approximately 60 meters after leaving the barrel, the ablative layer was breached, the gel ignited, and a small plasma round emerged as air friction turned the gel into free-flowing plasma. While this round had a range of only 500m, it was mass produced but outlawed by the Tripoli Warfare Conventions before they were ever used. However, in direct violation of UN orders, NEMA maintained a stockpile of these controversial rounds. These rounds were manufactured by the Dow Munitions plant in South Dakota, but so far the factories whereabouts post-Rifts remains unknown. Slammer(TM) rounds were developed by LifeRight Industries as a non-lethal munition to be used in rail guns, in accordance to their charter to make warfare "less life cost intensive". The round only has an effective range of 200m, but less than 5 feet from the barrel, the round itself is turned into a compact "packet" of air that hits hard enough to stun, but not injure. Specifically children, with smaller bodies, seemed more resistant to this round. While it was offered at extremely low prices, NEMA only bought enough to keep up public appearances. Very few of these rounds were used during the Cataclysm. These rounds were manufactured in Silicon Valley, CA, but the company went bankrupt in 2092 and sold its patents and factories off by 2097, after the two founders committed suicide. In 2097 an upgrade kit to the R-670 was issued, using breakthrough polyceramic magnetic superconductor alloys that were almost entirely resistant to heat cracking, as well as resisted "environmental conversion damage" to the rails from sand or other debris being melted to the rails. However, not all R-670's were upgraded to R-670A1's before the coming of the Cataclysm. The weapon is primarily used by power armors, heavy infantry cyborgs, fixed defenses, and vehicle weapon mounts. During the Second Dark Ages, this weapon was found to be able to powered without the "energized rounds" via the power conduit circuitry, which was merely disabled rather than removed (a 10 minute fix that required no parts, just microswitch settings changed, the majority of the time taken to remove the housing) meaning this weapon could be used to fire machine lathed "home-made" rounds, as well as rounds scavenged from ruins. In Rifts Earth, possession of this weapon in CS territory is a Class A Felony, as well as "Conspiracy to commit murder/mayhem" charges. However, outside CS territory this weapon can be found in fixed positions, attached to old vehicles, and located in old ruins. The illustration shows the weapon with the built-in tripod retracted, folded, and put in the storage position. The sight is simple IR/VIR/UV/Passive nightvision/Thermographic/50X vision, is hardy, and powered via a motion generator similar to that found in vibroweapons. In 56 PA the Colorado Baronies discovered a stockpile of more than 2000 of these weapons, along with over 20 million"energized rounds" for them in a "Cold Storage Locker" discovered in the Rocky Mountains, and sold them to Free Quebec in 62 PA. Despite their best efforts, Free Quebec was unable to duplicate the energized rounds technology, expending every shell in their efforts. For the massive trade, the Colorado Baronies received a massive influx of medical, communications, repair, and vehicle components and equipment. While nobody is talking, unofficial estimates put the trade in the hundreds of millions of credits, paid over a 10 year term. It is known that Free Quebec offered up 125 Glitter Boys for the weapons and mostly, the ammunition. (Which only added up to 10,000 rounds per weapon, a typical war stock and not that unheard of as far as quantity goes) Weight: 82 lbs Length: 65 in Caliber: 14.5mm Muzzle Velocity: 3793 m/s Maximum Range: 17km (10 miles) Maximum Effective Range: 4700m (14100 ft) Typical Combat Range: 2300m (6900 ft) Magazine Capacity: Drum or belt fed Note: The energized round is much more than just normal capacitance gel, ala the famed energy clip, as it seems to produce more than 27X the normal amount of energy when it vaporizes, and without the superconductor coating the gel evaporates at room temperature rather quickly. Free Quebec researchers tried coring out a rail gun round made out of conductive materiel and filling it with capacitance gel, but this proved unable to carry the charge needed to activate the rails. As of this writing, Free Quebec is willing to pay good money, or excellent trades, for stockpiles of this ammunition.
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Sep 28, 2014 05:24
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 17:36 |
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Thanks. There's a SHITLOAD more, along with armor. I hit a snag a few years back, but I think I've got most of it still at the Palladium Megaverse site. The US Marine Corps Shipboard Action Equipment M-2011 Ion Pistol The US Marine Corps has long been the United States' shock infantry troops. Trained to engage the enemy and destroy them on any battlefield, under any enemy fire, to adapt and win under all circumstances, the USMC was one of the first services to move entirely to next generation weaponry. In 2035 the Objective Force Land Warrior project by DARPA had many sidearms and assault rifles to go through testing. They were being tested for extreme climates, battlefield endurance, structural robustness, energy consumption, and usefulness on the "digital battlefield." The Marine Corps disdained lasers as too weak, despite their exemplary ranges. However Litton/Gerber Weapons Consortium had fielded a set of ion weapons that the Marines began testing. By 3037 the Litton/Gerber M-2011 Energy Pistol and the M-160 Assault Rifle System found it's way into the Marine Corps Table of Equipment and Organization. The ion weapons did not suffer from spectrum scatter when striking chromium armor foes, nor did they suffer from spectrum scatter when a microcrystal mist grenade or high concentrate smoke was deployed. The weapons frame was built in Nacelle, CA, with the electronics being built in Toluca, Mexico, and the final product assembled in Toronto, Canada. However, in an unprecedented move, the USMC and the US Navy demanded that Litton/Gerber supply them with twelve automatic assembly lines, micronized as much a possible, and able to be run at the push of the button providing that the raw materials were fed into the hoppers. Despite worries by Litton/Gerber that these micro-factories would be used to produce the weapons without paying Litton/Gerber, after the micro-factories delivery in 2071, they disappeared without a trace, and the slight green tint that the casing of the weapon would possess from one of these factories never appeared on any weapon. The M-2011 Pistol, Energy, Ion Packet Discharge; is more resembles a submachine pistol of the late 20th Century, is heavier and bulkier than the sleek energy weapons that the Air Force and Navy and NEMA were fielding. That was part of the weapon's charm, as USMC psychologists deemed that the M-2011 looked threatening enough to actually give the enemy pause upon sighting one of these. The weapon was deliberately left in its prototype design for this exact reason. The M-2011 was designated a "Shipboard Action Weapon" in 3037, issued to ground troops as well as those aboard ships, and the weapon proved itself during many boarding raids as able to handle a sudden armored threat as well as being able to be adjusted to a lower power setting that didn't run the risk of destroying the ship. The pistol proved its merit in 2058, where NEMA forces had a difficulty establishing landing zones and the USMC established a beachhead on the Sudanese coast, allowing NEMA to land peacekeeping forces and establish a noteworthy presence in the brutal genocidal war. The grip is hard plastic overlaid with soft plastic handgrips that deform slightly to allow use by personnel wearing body armor, or when the naked hand is slick due to blood, water, oil, or other environmental hazards. The body itself is made up of synthetic plastics and neo-tungsten, and flash-colored a dark gray color. The handgrip is a light gray, and the sighting rail has a white dot on the rear. The "submachine gun" look was kept in order to capitalize on the fear of such submachineguns like the Uzi and the Skorpian. In addition the pistol frame has 4 picatinny rails mounted on it, allowing up to 4 pieces of supplemental hardware to be added to the weapon. The front sight has a white dot on the rear to assist in nighttime or high glare sighting, as well as the rear sight bracket being retractable to allow modifications to be used on the top side picatinny rail. The M-2011 fires a packet of positively charged ions by stripping electrons from air molecules injected into the chamber and using a magnetic directional pulse to "fire" the packet of ions toward a target. The impact of this ion "bolt" would cause the electrons in the outer shells of the targeted materials to violently strip away as the ions within the charge tried to balance their electron valence bands. This caused the struck material to slough off with a loud, explosive noise as the molecular stabilization failed. This proved particularly useful against molecularly bonded armor as the molecular bonds failed when the atomic structure became unstable. The pistol's chamber is fed by two small air injectors, which pressurize the chamber with air in order to give the ionization circuitry something to ionize without resulting in a 2-magazine system. The air injectors are easily replaced or cleaned when fouled, and a trained operator can swap out the injectors in less than 10 seconds even under combat. The M-2011 is often fielded with a collapsible stock, furthering the appearance of an SMG, as well as a scope, laser desingators or illuminators, a computerized data-node, or one or two air cylinders.
During the Cataclysm this weapon saw heavy use by Marine Corps troops who were on the the ground, and by Marine Corps troops who were tasked with defending the ships from extra-dimensional boarders. During the Second Dark Ages, those that had this weapon kept it in prime shape, as the injectors were easy to repair or clean, and the weapon was highly durable. In one legendary example a Juicer pistol-whipped a demon from the rifts to death with it when it ran out of ammunition. The Picatinny rails were often removed or lost, and eventually the pistol became a stripped down version of itself. In addition this weapon was rarely sold or traded, but rather handed down through the generations, as the USMC seal on each side of the weapon marked something special to those who inherited the weapon. By Rifts Earth, this is considered a legacy weapon and the mark of someone who is descended from the legendary Neeman Marines. Anyone found with it in CS Territory will usually be offered a vast sum of money for it, or offered to trade for it, but corrupt CS officers/NCO's will just take it. Surprisingly there are many of these weapons in the hands of the California Native American Tribes than anywhere else. Weight: 3.5 lbs Length: 8.1 inches Caliber: 2cm Maximum Range: 500m (1500 feet) Maximum Effective Range: 300m (900 feet) Typical Combat Range: <10m (less than 30 feet) Magazine Capacity: 20 shots with standard eclip, 30 shots with extended eclip. Note: The New Navy is in possession of three of these "micro-fabricators" for the ion pistol, where the other 9 went is a cause of mystery. However, nobody in Rifts Earth even knows they were ever built, so nobody has ever searched them out.
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Sep 28, 2014 05:55
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