Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[NUKE9.13]

Revision: EAF-PX4 "Raider"
The Raider has been neglected for a while, too.

We refit the Raider to use the Vasarely Pattern (like ~x2 damage not x3 'cause we're not increasing power consumption). While we're at it, we make it more futuristic we include a holographic sight and sync the entire gun with Athena. Athena will be able to pinpoint already-analyzed weakspots as well as targets already located by the Athena network. The holosight isn't huge in size but it can point out targets (specifically mirage-plated ones) in the general direction the gun's pointed, as aforementioned the best spots to fire on to get past armor can be pinpointed, and Athena can give targets that compensate for movement and the like.
As a side note, one of the three Vasarely wavelength modes should be IR in order to bypass their smoke cloud stuff.

TL;DR: Give the Raider the Vasarely Pattern (increasing damage + countering mirage plating) and a holosight linked to Athena (compensating for target movement + pointing out stuff known by the network, like cloaked targets and weak points). Should be straightforward.
(Should be easy - holosight is just a hologram [we have] displaying what Athena knows and Vasarely pattern is already a laser pattern and from previous pattern designs we know porting them is trivial)

EAF-PX4 "Raider" (Easy): (1+3)+1=5: Average
The PX3 was kind of thrown together whilst designing the Picasso Pattern; we never actually put all that much effort into it. Just sitting down and going over the design again has paid off in spades. Of course, integrating the Vasarely Pattern didn't hurt either. The Athena integration was the trickiest part of the whole process, and even that wasn't too hard.
The PX4 has double the damage output of the PX3, whilst a more efficient configuration has reduced the weight by a third. A switch on the side of the gun lets the wielder switch between the three preset frequencies. The old sights have been replaced by totally radical holographic ones, which in addition to raising morale also make the weapon more effective, as Athena highlights targets and provides basic information on them. This does require an Athena node to be in range, however, as the rifle does not have much on-board processing power (without a nearby Athena node, the sights perform only basic magnification duties). Currently the best option for this is the Aegis Commander, as the Sarissa is usually far away from any firefight, and also has a smaller node.


It is now the Strategy Phase of SY105.

Spoiler: Tech List (click to show/hide)

Ships
ITC (Interplanetary Transport Craft): The ships that carried colonists to your homeworld, now repurposed as military transports. They use rocket shuttles to ferry things to and from the surface. These shuttles have a limited capacity, meaning that with the exception of troops, the ITC cannot carry any equipment of a size greater than 1TC. It has 4TC. It uses chemical engines for propulsion. It has no armour or armaments. It is Very Slow, and quite large.
Cost: 2SPP

ESC-FS 1 'Cuttlefish' laser corvette: A medium-sized spaceship. The Cuttlefish's hull vaguely resembles its namesake. The 'beak' is a "Hermes" variable-water-injected fusion thruster, which draws plasma from the Helios-S reactor. It has very light armour, and has three AX5-Spear turrets, which are automatically aimed by the Athena RL System, which also handles evasive manoeuvres. The more ships in the fleet, the better Athena performs, due to her distributed computing. Its speed is Moderate, though it can inject extra water into the thruster for a temporary speed boost.
Cost: 2SPP
  Insalloy Armour: A few plates of Insalloy, formed into a basic armour covering for the Cuttlefish. Despite being thin, they increase survivability by as much as 100%.
  Cost: Negligible increase.


Equipment
Printed Pistol: Issued to security guards before the war, the only real weapon both colonies started with. They are 3D-printed out of plastic, a process which is not entirely reliable, meaning the gun has a tendency to break after prolonged use... or any use, really.
Cost: Cheap

X100 Space Suit: A civilian space suit, totally unarmoured and cumbersome to walk in. At least it works well enough, and has a self-sealing lining meaning a single shot isn't an immediate death sentence... most of the time. Necessary for deployment to worlds without breathable atmospheres.
Cost: Cheap
  X100-I: Literally just a few plates of Insalloy bolted onto the outside of an X100.
  Cost: Cheap

EAF-X1 "Ranger" Laser Rifle: A big, bulky firearm, weighing in at 15kg- just barely wieldable whilst standing. Works best against stationary targets. Can fire 30 shots in pulse mode before reloading, or 15 seconds in beam mode. Beam mode has pretty good armour penetration against conventional armour. Comes with basic scope and bipod. With the scope it is accurate at Long range.
Cost: Cheap
  EAF-PX3 Raider: A variant of the Ranger, using the new Picasso Pattern. Weighs a 'mere' 7.5kg. Fires shorter pulses, and deals more damage against moving targets. Does not have a beam mode.
  EAF-PX4 Raider: Superior in every way to the PX3, the PX4 deals twice the damage, weighs a far more reasonable 5kg, and can switch between three preset laser frequencies (although the non-default ones deal less damage). It also has cool holographic sights, which can link to a nearby Athena node to provide better targeting information.

Interplanetary Radio: Essentially just a very big radio set, capable of reliable communication between planets. Too big to fit on an ITC. Currently only useful for taunting Quillus.
Cost: 2GPP
Weight: 2TC


Vehicles
EAC-TML1 Sarissa Missile Launcher: A nuclear-missile launcher consisting of three shuttle-loads worth of stuff: a small electric truck, a launch trailer, and the missiles themselves. The launch trailer loads 8 missiles, tipped with extremely small nuclear warheads for maximum 'tactical' performance. The missiles are controlled by Athena, who is now capable of flying missiles and identifying ground targets. Their range isn't great, and the launcher misfires (harmlessly) about 25% of the time, the guidance system is a bit wonky even under Athena's capable control, and the truck+trailer is slow and unwieldy, but still, nuclear-missile launcher!
Cost: 2GPP
Weight 2TC/1TC in shuttle.

EAF-ACD1 "Aegis": an Athena-controlled drone with an Insalloy frame. It has some trouble walking, shooting straight, and possesses sensors that aren't great, but it is not totally incompetent. Due to a lack of on-board processing power, they require a nearby Aegis Commander- just a big Athena node with an antenna, carried by two Aegis drones- to do anything useful. Do not say "Roger roger" repeatedly.
Cost: 1.5GPP
Weight: 0.2TC for a 100 drone complement. (Units may equip an unlimited number of drones)


Infrastructure
Colony Defence Grid: The reason you can't instantly invade the enemy homeworld. A series of surface-to-orbit missile launchers, the only real concession to self defence the planners of the colony made. How they work is a mystery, and no one wants to risk taking them apart to find out.

"Helios" Fusion Reactor: A large, Tokamak style reactor. Performs He3-He3 fusion, though it does not take full advantage of this. Provides 2SPP and 2GPP.
  Helios-S: A variety specifically designed for use in spaceships. A 'twisted' plasma flow allows for plasma to be siphoned off without disrupting the reaction.

"Caduceus" Compact fusion reactor: A Polywell-style reactor, available in far smaller sizes than the Helios- as small as 1m³. Also performs He3-He3 fusion, and takes advantage of this. Can easily have plasma siphoned off for use in Hermes drives.


Loose Parts
EAC-AX5 Spear: A large laser. Respectable engineering gives it a very reasonable damage output and range, whilst the special nature of the Vasarely pattern lets it switch between three preset wavelengths. Does require quite a bit of power, of course.


Misc Tech
Nanoquantum Capacitor Cells, Escher Pattern Mk2: AKA NQ Cells. About 15 times better than chemical batteries. Palm-sized, weigh about a kilo each. Despite their apparent complexity, manufacture and usage is simple.

Libum-265K: A near-room temperature superconductor. Manufacture is complicated.

Hephaestus Synthesis: A complicated process that produces small amounts of Insulanium- an isotope of a certain element that resides in the "Island of Stability"; it is very heavy, yet relatively stable. Produced in too small amounts to make anything practical out of it, it is instead alloyed with more common metals, which substantially increases their strength even with only 0.25% Insulanium added.
  Hephaestus Mark 2: A new method of Insulanium production, that uses fusion reactors to fuse up to the desired element. Substantially lowers the cost of Insulanium-using designs.

Spoiler: Observed enemy tech (click to show/hide)

Ships
ITC (Interplanetary Transport Craft): New shuttle spotted:
  QS-RAS-00 'Dove': A heavier shuttle for the ITC, powered by a Loki-class Stardust reactor and fitted with Apollo thrusters. It has light armour and two 30mm Hayks. Can carry 3TC. Adds 1SPP to the cost of an ITC.

QS-CA-99 'Odin': A heavily armoured medium-sized spaceship. Her hull is all slope, the front being a point, from which slopes lead up to the widest point, then slopes lead down at the same angle, before being cut off, leaving a large flat area in the back, where the main thrusters are. Aforementioned main thrusters are three Apollos. She has five smaller thrusters mounted pointing in other directions, providing excellent manoeuvrability. Her powerplant is a Stardust reactor. She is armed with four Mjolnir turrets providing excellent coverage, and a single spinal-mount extra-long Mjolnir. Her weapons are aimed by the Huginn System, which automatically collects data from her improved radar. Her armour consists of a layer of Heavy titanium with faraday insulation, with a layer of Light ceramics mounted a full three meters away from the main hull. Despite her bulk, she moves at a Moderate pace.
Can be given Mirage Plating for an extra 0.5SPP
Cost: 3SPP

QS-SF-00 'Loki': A small-ish fighter, capable of independent operation for a few days before needing to resupply. A substantially downsized Stardust reactor provides power to the Apollo thrusters, as well as the singular Mjolnir coilgun. Has light armour, and a radio capable of same-orbit communication. Requires a transport to act as 'mothership'- two Lokis take up 1TC. They are now equipped with Mirage Plating.
Cost: 1SPP for two.

Equipment
Printed Pistol: No differences noticed.

X100 Space Suit: No differences noticed.

Interplanetary Radio: No differences noticed.

QS-IRW-99 'Hayk': The Hayk is a micromissile-firing rifle. It is magazine fed, has a reasonable rate of fire, and is accurate at a surprising distance- theoretically out to Long range, although few are capable of such superhuman feats. There is an ammo variant which explodes on contact, though it is less accurate and in shorter supply.
Cost: Cheap

QS-GL-02 'Fog Machine': The Fog Machine is a simple grenade launcher, basically nothing more than an oversized Hayk with a shortened barrel. It fires either smoke/chaff or explosives. Range/accuracy is a bit of an issue.
Cost: Cheap


Vehicles
QS-MBT-02 'Hrungnir': The Hrungnir is a big tank, with fairly heavy armour in the form of a layer of ceramics atop a layer of titanium (all sloped). It is powered by a Stardust reactor, basically the same one used by the Loki. The energy is used to drive electric motors which in turn drive the treads upon which the Hrungnir sits. It is equipped with a 50mm stabilized auto-loading Mjolnir coilgun, the barrel of which can also be used to fire upsized explosive Hayk rockets. It has an electronics package that handles fire control and sensors. It also has smoke/chaff dispensers, which automatically cloud the vehicle in smoke/chaff (for atmosphereless planets) when sensors detect unusual heating.
It has an Ullr system mounted on the roof, and can be made mostly invisible with Mirage Plating for an additional 1GPP.
Cost: 4GPP
Weight: 3TC


Infrastructure

Colony Defence Grid: No differences noticed.

QS-CPP-96 'Stardust': A fusion reactor, copies of which can be found across Quillus, powering industry. Utilises powerful niobium-tin superconductors, cooled by liquid helium, to contain plasma in a Tokamak-style. The "Brokkr's Forge" improvements have made it slightly more effective, to the point where it reaches ignition. Grants 2GPP and 2SPP. A smaller version designed for use in spaceships also exists.


Loose Parts
QS-MAC-97 'Mjolnir': A coilgun (and definitely not a railgun) capable of firing 150mm slugs at considerable speeds. Requires a substantial power supply. Ground installations cost 1GPP for four. Ship mountings cost 1SPP for eight.

QS-MHD-98 'Apollo': A magneto-plasma-dynamic thruster of exceptional efficiency. Uses hydrogen plasma by default; heavier elements can be injected into the mix for a boost in thrust.

QS-MAMG-04 'Ullr': A highly effective CIWS system, using a miniaturised coilgun firing 6mm slugs, using Huginn-based aiming assistance. Excellent at shooting down missiles and enemy infantry alike.


Misc Tech
Optical Metamaterial 3 'Mirage Plating': A miracle substance that defies what were once considered laws of physics. OM3 consists of complicated (yet not impractically so for production purposes) layers of materials that together can redirect light in essentially arbitrary ways. It is not perfect, and can only affect 90% of light, and requires a small amount of power to function. OM3 must be created to affect a specific wavelength of light, and only works on light in a band around that wavelength. Only wavelengths from near-X-Ray to the lower end of microwave can be affected.
Shrouds of OM3 can be constructed for your vehicle of choice, offering either a degree of invisibility, or pretty good protection from lasers, or both.

Spoiler: Production (click to show/hide)

Ship Production Points: 16+2+2(E)
  6 Points: 2xITC, 1xITC (Destroyed)
    Locations: D, E.
  14 Points: 1xCuttlefish, 4xCuttlefish (Damaged), 2xCuttlefish (Destroyed) (using AX4 Spears)
    Locations: D

Ground Production Points: 16+2+4(E)
  0 Points: 4xX100-I
  4 Points: 2xSarissa
  18 Points: 6xAegis Drone, 6xAegis Drone (Destroyed)
 
Units: 5
  1 Unit on planet A (X100-I (using PX3 rifles))
  2 Units on planet D (X100-I, Sarissa, 6xAegis Drone (using PX3 rifles))
  1 Unit in ITC around planet E (no extra equipment (using PX3 rifles))
  1 Unit on planet F (X100-I (using PX3 rifles))

Spoiler: The Map (click to show/hide)

Don't even worry about this looking nothing like a solar system. Its, uh, optimal transfers or something. Look, it's dumb, but what do you want from me?

Key:
A: A volcanic world. Constant eruptions and earthquakes result in a thoroughly unpleasant environment. 4SPP, 2GPP
  E:1/6, Q:4/6
B: Rocky world. (Almost) no atmosphere, no major tectonic activity, this planets is... boring. The most notable terrain features are the craters that litter the surface. 2SPP, 2GPP
C: An ocean world. Covered in 94% water, with a breathable atmosphere, and a few inhabitable islands. Prepare for lots of island-hopping. 2SPP, 4GPP
  Q:6/6
D: An earthlike world. Covered in 69% water, with a breathable atmosphere, most of the surface being inhabitable. Terrain varies wildly, from open plains to thick jungles- and of course vast seas. 5SPP, 5GPP
  E:5/6, Q:1/6
E: A frozen world. Almost entirely covered in ice, with an atmosphere too thin to breathe. Ice sheets make for treacherous terrain, with snow-covered mountains being not much better. 2SPP, 4GPP
  E:6/6
F: Rocky world. (Almost) no atmosphere, no major tectonic activity, this planets is... boring. The most notable terrain features are the craters that litter the surface. 2SPP, 2GPP
  Q:4/6, E:0/6
G: A desert world. With a few salty 'seas' covering a mere 12% of the surface, the majority of this planet is dry as a bone. Vast sandscapes dominate, punctured by low, rocky hills, and the ocassional oasis. The atmosphere is breathable. 2SPP, 4GPP.
Ertex&Quillus: Earthlike worlds. Capturing the enemy homeworld results in victory. Yield no Production Points. I mean, they do, but those are already accounted for in your basic industry.

[Chiefwaffles]

Plan "Shaking Our Fist at Quillus as we Retreat"

Production
No changes.

Movements
ITC @ E: Drop Unit off at B.
Fleet @ D: Tactically retreat to Ertex.

Plan "Shaking Our Fist at Quillus as we Retreat" (1): Chiefwaffles

Not really much else we can do. Send our fleet back to repairs and grab the other gimme planet at B.

[BBBence1111]

Plan "Shaking Our Fist at Quillus as we Retreat" (2): Chiefwaffles, BBBence

[Blood_Librarian]

Why are we retreating? We basically have the entire planet. Retreating will only make us lose.

[Chiefwaffles]

Because we conquered E. We don’t need a Unit there anymore. And D we lost pretty badly and need to repair+refit the Fleet.

[Happerry]

Fair enough.

Plan "Shaking Our Fist at Quillus as we Retreat" (3): Chiefwaffles, BBBence, Happerry

[Chiefwaffles]

They are destroying us on the ground. The deployment of new rifles will greatly help our case (in addition to being significantly better against their power armor and tanks [which has been a problem due to the "focusing it on one spot isn't practical"] and being lighter - its weight was actually the main reason the Raider was worse than their gun at short range) but it isn't sure enough and we can't just keep on going with zero armored support.

We need a tank.
Design: EAF-HDW1 "Alke" Spider Tank (Heavy Drone, Walker)
Building on our knowledge of robotics, leg-based movement, new advances and more, we can make something truly devastating.

The Alke is relatively massive. However, as big as it is, it's actually remarkably smaller than the typical tank - it doesn't need to provide space for a crew to semi-comfortably live in, it doesn't need a massive ICE engine, it doesn't need room to store ammo, and more.
It has six legs - relatively massive appendages as well armored as the rest of the thing. If someone looked at it from a slight distance and squinted their eyes, they may say "that looks like a spider!", though the resemblance doesn't go beyond that. The entire Alke is armored heavily in Insalloy.
It houses a proportionally-sized Athena node. While we don't plan on designing or using the Alke as an Athena logistical center, it could serve the role as commander for local Aegis drones. This shouldn't be planned around too much in strategy, however - putting extremely vital logistics in huge front line targets isn't exactly the best of ideas.

While not particularly fast, its legs allow for extreme agility and maneuverability. It can go in any direction, "crouch", lean in any direction, it can "climb", and deal with rough terrain much more effectively than any treaded vehicle. It has simple hooks on itself to allow either Aegis units or human soldiers to hitch a ride if needed, though it has no interior for people to go into and isn't designed in any way whatsoever for transport.

The Alke is equipped with an appropriately-sized Caduceus reactor and a single (slightly downsized) AX5 Spear turret (this turret is at the front, armored, and houses some of the sensors, making it vaguely look like a "head"). It also has two lower-mounted Raiders for anti-infantry. Although, unlike the shortsighted Quillus, all our weapons should be good at anti-infantry. All its hardpoints are designed to be relatively easily replaced with a different weapon of the same general type. Like replacing the raider turrets with other similarly-sized weapons or changing the Spear.
It has an extensive sensor array - visual, IR, (limited) radar, sound - etc. - distributed across itself for targeting and contributing intelligence to the overall Athena network. The sensors are designed with Quillus' mirage plating in mind. (Not that overcoming it should be hard - their mirage plating is mostly for fooling human eyes)

Its legs are designed to effectively curl underneath the chassis for easier transport. Being able to be shipped in shuttles or hot-dropped or whatever would be really nice, but we know that's an unrealistic goal. So we're just going for "not too insanely huge" here.

TL;DR: A spider-tank. Has a single Spear turret and two anti-infantry Raider turrets on the bottom. Heavily armored, six (not eight) equally-armored legs. Equipped with Caduceus reactor.
I removed some stuff from the first introduction of this design - the Hermes thruster, the missiles, and some other stuff.

EAF-HDW1 "Alke" Spider Tank (1): Chiefwaffles

[Happerry]

EAF-HDW1 "Alke" Spider Tank (2): Chiefwaffles, Happerry

[andrea]

The spider is good, and would be a capable vehicle. However, I want to make an alternative proposal, focused on the most efficient use of space to fit in 1 TC. It will be a bit less armed and more focused on speed than agility, but it should still be a reasonable vehicle to suit our needs, with less risk of being screwed up by dice: with the Alke, we need 2 at least decent rolls in order to deploy an useful tank. if the tank roll goes badly, or the shuttle roll goes badly, we have nothing to deploy.

Hence the slightly worse (maybe) but safer alternative:

Design: EAF-LDW1 "Crocotta" walker tank
Building on our knowledge of robotics, leg-based movement, small fusion reactor, lasers and armor materials, we can make a compact yet devastating war machine

It is blocky and relatively large, but still much smaller than what would normally be considered a tank: no crew, small electric engines, a relatively compact power source, no ammunition storage. Its main distinguishing feature is its blockiness, as it is made to fit almost exactly in our shuttle holds. It has 4 legs, making it less agile than a spider like design, but faster on a straight line, while still having a decent ability to climb slopes.

Inside, it has a 1x1x1 caduceus reactor providing power and a sizeable athena node to control it (and help stupid drones if they are nearby, although this is a front line unit more than a dedicated logistical one). Those, together with the legs, occupy much of the lower meter of the tank. The upper part instead houses almost in its entirety a laser emitter, which is the main ( and only) weapon of this tank.. The only other component in this part of the tank is the turret , which is recessed in the hull during transportation or to protect from incoming fire, but pops out during use. The turret itself is just a couple of mirrors redirecting the laser beam, meaning that it can rotate very quickly. While the emitting part is by necessity unarmored, all the other sides of the turret are protected. It is predicted that the laser will be between 150 and 300 times more powerful than our current infantry rifles, allowing it to pierce enemy tanks. It has all the newly developed features of our laser tech.

The design is fairly armored, with even the weaker parts having 10 cm of insalloy, rising up to 20c for critical areas. Empty spaces inside are filled with batteries, providing additional protection ( they are non-critical) and allowing short bursts of higher power use.

The feet are clawed, to allow better grip on steeper slopes and to assist in digging trenches.
It has a full suite of sensors, IR to radar, allowing it to detect enemy mirages.

Below is a proposal as to how all those things may be placed in a 4 m x 2 m x1.5 m box. First is a top down view without emitter, second is a side view.
Nuke says a smallish car fits in 1 TC. We know it is roughly 4 m long from Sarissa discussion, cars are around 2 m width, and the sarissa truck fits, so I guess it is also at least 1.5 m in height.

edit: nevermind, I am failing to post the pictures

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Blood_Librarian]

EAF-HDW1-B "Alko" Spider Tank

Simply put the Alko is a distinctly different variation of the Alke that replaces it's Spear with a modified Spear. Replacing a portion of the Spears internal systems (Slightly lowering the power of the Spear) and making room for a set of optiona transformers and other equipment designed for sending a bolt of extremely high voltage electricity down the PLasma channel that the Spear will create. Although this does, to an extent, reduce the modularity of the Alko, the Alko mounts an electrolaser that is more potent then the same amount of volume devoted towards a regular laser.

The Electro laser works by ionizing the atmosphere, and using the conduit of ionized plasma and sending down a bolt of electricity. This electricity is essentially the equivalent of a lightning strike, it will destroy shielded electronics, weld metal together, destroy delicate structures and explode where it strikes. Because of hte amount of power going through our laser, I think our lasers already create the required plasma channel or it requires only a small amount of modification to do so, and as such it should be very much an easy task to commit to to make an Electrolaser reality.

In non-atmospheric positions, the electrolaser equipment is stripped out and and replaced with a battery mount.

EAF-HDW1 "Alke" Spider Tank (2): Chiefwaffles, Happerry
EAF-HDW1-B "Alko" Spider Tank (1):Blood_librarian

[andrea]

By the way, the spear was said in discord to be 2TC by itself, probably more when vehicle mounted.  Expect any non downsided design to be 3 TC. It will be massively overpowered against anything they will throw us.

EAF-HDW1 "Alke" Spider Tank (2): Chiefwaffles, Happerry
EAF-HDW1-B "Alko" Spider Tank (1):Blood_librarian
EAF-LDW1 "Crocotta" walker tank (1): Andrea

As for the electrolaser, I fear that keeping the arc stable enough to actually do more damage than the equivalent laser power may not be so trivial.

[Blood_Librarian]

As a note, Electrolasers are being developed as Less-then Lethal weapons in real life. When the electric arc happens, unlimited electrciity can be sent down because the more electricity you send down after the laser, more more likely that the plasma will be alright because of the electricity making more plasma due to the resistance of the air, and since the plasma is already in a straight line (preferably in a slight decline), towards an enemy object that is grounded, It is very (very) likely that the target (enemy tank) will be struck. Furthermore,since we can send basically infintie amount of electricity down the line, We can send the equivalent of a 10 second laser burst down the line in a fraction of a second ( as an example, I am NOT advocating that.) Because  we only need that fraction of a second for power delivery, the plasma only needs to be "stable" for that fraction of a second, and the plasma would have no reason to deviate since again, the plasma is only being created down the path of a laser ( a straight line). Unless we are shooting through something, there is no chance of it hitting something we dont intend on hitting.

We DONT have to worry about it being "stable".

Didn't Waffles stated that he wanted the Spear to be downsized?

[BBBence1111]

EAF-HDW1 "Alke" Spider Tank (3): Chiefwaffles, Happerry, BBBence
EAF-HDW1-B "Alko" Spider Tank (1):Blood_librarian
EAF-LDW1 "Crocotta" walker tank (1): Andrea

[NUKE9.13]

Design: EAF-HDW1 "Alke" Spider Tank (Heavy Drone, Walker)
Building on our knowledge of robotics, leg-based movement, new advances and more, we can make something truly devastating.

The Alke is relatively massive. However, as big as it is, it's actually remarkably smaller than the typical tank - it doesn't need to provide space for a crew to semi-comfortably live in, it doesn't need a massive ICE engine, it doesn't need room to store ammo, and more.
It has six legs - relatively massive appendages as well armored as the rest of the thing. If someone looked at it from a slight distance and squinted their eyes, they may say "that looks like a spider!", though the resemblance doesn't go beyond that. The entire Alke is armored heavily in Insalloy.
It houses a proportionally-sized Athena node. While we don't plan on designing or using the Alke as an Athena logistical center, it could serve the role as commander for local Aegis drones. This shouldn't be planned around too much in strategy, however - putting extremely vital logistics in huge front line targets isn't exactly the best of ideas.

While not particularly fast, its legs allow for extreme agility and maneuverability. It can go in any direction, "crouch", lean in any direction, it can "climb", and deal with rough terrain much more effectively than any treaded vehicle. It has simple hooks on itself to allow either Aegis units or human soldiers to hitch a ride if needed, though it has no interior for people to go into and isn't designed in any way whatsoever for transport.

The Alke is equipped with an appropriately-sized Caduceus reactor and a single (slightly downsized) AX5 Spear turret (this turret is at the front, armored, and houses some of the sensors, making it vaguely look like a "head"). It also has two lower-mounted Raiders for anti-infantry. Although, unlike the shortsighted Quillus, all our weapons should be good at anti-infantry. All its hardpoints are designed to be relatively easily replaced with a different weapon of the same general type. Like replacing the raider turrets with other similarly-sized weapons or changing the Spear.
It has an extensive sensor array - visual, IR, (limited) radar, sound - etc. - distributed across itself for targeting and contributing intelligence to the overall Athena network. The sensors are designed with Quillus' mirage plating in mind. (Not that overcoming it should be hard - their mirage plating is mostly for fooling human eyes)

Its legs are designed to effectively curl underneath the chassis for easier transport. Being able to be shipped in shuttles or hot-dropped or whatever would be really nice, but we know that's an unrealistic goal. So we're just going for "not too insanely huge" here.

TL;DR: A spider-tank. Has a single Spear turret and two anti-infantry Raider turrets on the bottom. Heavily armored, six (not eight) equally-armored legs. Equipped with Caduceus reactor.

EAF-HDW1 "Alke" Spider Tank (Easy): (1+3)+1=5: Average
Our prior experience designing the Aegis drones was useful here, as was the fact that everything other than the propulsion is something we already had lying around.
As a result, the Alke is a competent piece of tech. The six legs have a wide range of movement, making it reasonably agile, although not impressively fast. The armour is thick enough to provide essentially complete immunity to Quillus's firearms, and reasonable defence against the downsized Mjolnir coilguns on their tanks. The Athena node provides more than enough processing power to move the tank with acceptable competence, and can provide guidance to nearby Aegis drones. As is the case for our ships, the more processing power is available, the better Athena performs. We have no complaints about the reactor, which provides ample power for both propulsion and weaponry. Aforementioned weaponry consists of a downsized AX5 Spear, which takes up much of the space in the tank, but provides a big punch as a result, and two turreted Raiders, which are basically unmodified. Sensors are all fine, providing a fairly clear picture of the battlefield- better than what the Aegis has by quite a bit, both due to having more space, and just being slightly better put together.

All in all, the Alke should serve us well on any world we care to deploy it to. It is not a small vehicle, taking up 3TC, though we think we could've made it more compact with a little more time. A unit's worth of tanks will set us back 4GPP.


It is now the Revision Phase of SY106.

[andrea]

Shuttle version 2a
our soldiers are tired of being cramped and unequipped.

The newest drop shuttle is a simple enlargement of our previous design, using more modern technologies to aid - For example, the higher structural needs are helped by the presence of insalloy, which also surprisingly finds its way in the heat shield, and the old chemical engines are supplemented by our existing fusion thrusters, as long as they don't interfere with nominal operations (basically: do they have the thrust? if not, keep for orbital manoeuvers only). In this case, bigger IS better. Overall, it should be able to transport 3 TC, although 4 is also a noble goal.