Tesla Rifle
Utilizing knowledge learned in the Storm missile, a new type of rifle is made. It uses the ARC system to generate a lightning bolt and launch it from the end of the rifle, instantaneously frying the target. If said target wasn't adequately grounded, the bolt may strike others near it. The lightning bolt may also separate and hit several targets in the general area the rifle was aimed at. Intended to be accurate up to medium range.
The energy for this is provided by a SynthOil generator that can be worn as a backpack or built into vehicles where the Tesla may be installed.
Design: Tesla RifleNormal: (3+2) = 5: Average
The Tesla Rifle isn't quite ready to become an army mainstay, but it's certainly an effective weapon.
In visual appearance, it's surprisingly similar to that of a flamethrower. The "gun" part is constructed largely out of quality wood and other insulating materials to minimize chances of backfiring. It's comprised of an inner cylinder-shaped chamber that our engineers call the "Lightning Rod"; and really, it has a fascinating look to it. Small bits of glass allow for viewing into the chamber for both appearance and weapon maintenance sake. A long thin metal rod is placed in the middle of the chamber, connecting both ends. The metal "spikes" that we used for generating the ARC payload in Storm missiles are present here; they're much smaller but line the walls of the Lightning Rod.
Its name comes into relevance during chamber operation. Lightning seems to be captured and held inside the chamber, and looking inside would reveal what looks like lightning rapidly convulsing and moving around on the rod, with occasional arcing to some of the spikes. As the weapon charges further, the electricity becomes more intense. If it's overcharged, the chamber simply just becomes a blinding white light to anyone looking at it. To enhance soldier convenience, we have a row of four small light bulbs next to the main "window" to represent charge levels. One light is "effective, but short-ranged and likely non-lethal". Two is "medium ranged with moderate lethality". Three is "medium ranged with extreme lethality", and Four is "medium range with overkilling lethality and severe chance of overcharging". We don't recommend overcharging the gun. That tends to cause explosions.
Not a good thing, explosions. Not when they happen to our testing subjects.
As mentioned before, the weapon has to be charged to be used. This is a natural "flaw" coming from adapting the Storm missile to a gun. The Storm missile takes advantage of what's effectively a spontaneous combustion of a relatively large SynthOil payload to generate the ARC effect. We don't have that luxury in a rifle.
The rifle is connected to the backpack "generator". The backpack is more of a tank, really, for SynthOil. SynthOil is gradually "converted" to charge the Lightning Rod. It generally takes a minute to get to Charge Level 3, which is the recommended level for offensive use. Charging can be stopped/paused at any time, but inherent resistance in the wiring and Lighting Rod means that charge is lost over time. So we generally recommend that our soldiers don't rely too much on saving charges, and instead charge it on demand.
A Level 3 charged shot can reliably kill Bear Troopers. If not killing, then at least disabling them by effectively welding the joints together. Shots can and do arc, with a Level 3 shot able to hit a handful of conductive soldiers or weapons in very close proximity and decreasing lethality as it arcs. Level four shots are especially good at arcing, but are unsafe due to the risk of overcharging.
The SynthOil backpack-battery can power
5 Level 3 shots. Or about two Level 5s, and some more Level 2s/1s. But Level 3 is the main focus here.
It can be installed on vehicles and linked to external SynthOil batteries easily enough, but the precise manufacturing required to make the Lightning Rod means that upscaling it trivially is out of the question. As no vehicles have the mounts for it, it is currently an infantry-only weapon.
Overall, it's a good weapon. Not a good "standard issue" weapon, mind you; the Tesla Rifle requires a bulky backpack, requires a minute between proper shot, and only has enough power for five regular shots. But it's insanely lethal, has an area of effect, and, perhaps most importantly, it looks cool.
Our generals predict reasonable effectiveness, though that can't be determined for sure until after it sees combat.
It costs
2 Ore and
2 Oil; it's
Complex due to the inherent difficulty in manufacturing the Lightning Rod (minor flaws can result in the whole thing exploding as it gets to the first level of charge). This all makes it
Expensive.Transport Capacity: 2/1 (1/2 Oil Imported)
Resources: 3 Ore,
3 Oil,
2 Rare ChemicalsWeapons- "Pursuit" Rifle: An 20-round magazine automatic rifle with mediocre accuracy at Medium range (and useless accuracy further).
[Cheap] 1 Ore - "Machete" Pistol: A 6-round semiautomatic pistol semi-accurate up to Short range. Reliable.
[Cheap] 1 Ore - "Jumper" EMA Grenade Launcher: The Electromagnetically Assisted Grenade Launcher "Jumper" is roughly the shape of a very noticeably thicker bazooka-like assembly. It uses inefficient brick-sized SynthOil batteries that provide enough charge for one shot per battery. Once a battery is inserted, the Jumper has to "charge" for roughly thirty seconds before being able to fire, and can fire 1.5 inch specially-made grenades with "average" radii and okay accuracy, silently. It's fairly bulky. The manufacturing of the coilgun adds severe complexity.
[Expensive] 2 Ore, 1 Oil, Complex - HMKR-59 'Osprey': Hybrid Magnetic Kinetic Rifle; a variant of the Pursuit rifle that houses coilgun components to increase the velocity of bullets after conventional firing. Has a slot in the back for a single SynthOil battery, which has enough charge for 10 powered shots (soldiers carry 2 batteries total). Powered shots are accurate to Medium range (unpowered shots to Short range) and have increased lethality and armor piercing capabilities.
[Cheap] 1 Ore, 1 Oil - Tesla Rifle: A "rifle" that fires bolts of ARC lightning at Medium range. Using an inner "Lightning Rod" chamber, it gradually charges from a backpack SynthOil battery - it has four levels of charge, with Level 3 being the optimum Medium range + good lethality and Level 4 being overkill with a chance of explosive backfiring. It takes about a minute to charge to Level 3 (charging can be paused but the charge decays over time), and the battery has enough juice for 5 Lvl3 shots. Extremely lethal against anything conductive, and has a modest area-of-effect as the electricity arcs to other conductors in close proximity. Can be hooked up to external SynthOil batteries as well.
[Expensive] 2 Ore, 2 Oil, Complex - M1942 Missile, Auto-Guided, Infrared Camera (MAGIC) Mk.2 "Hellfire": The Hellfire Missile is an improvement over the original MAGIC Mk.1 in a few ways. The basic technology behind it as a rocket has improved, a specialized propellant is much more compact and powerful than the one adapted from infantry RPGs, so the rocket is lighter and faster. The structure has gotten lighter as well. The Hellfire includes an entirely new guidance system in the nose, and two sets of fins. Four rear fins are fixed stabilizers, and four fins close to the nose are controlled by servos, rather than solenoids, which gives them the ability to make partial turns. The sensor head consists of 13 individual sensors under a single lens in a diamond shape. There is a rotating circular shroud on top of the sensors, so that only a single "line" of sensors, including the center one and three or four others, can "see" at a time. A "tone generator" makes a noise in the cockpit to alert the pilot when one or more of the missiles on his plane has a target somewhere in his field of view, but doesn't alter based on how well-centered he is or other information. The missile's guidance is more accurate and reliable than the Mk.1, but the rotating shroud means that it might take a second to adjust to a chance in its target's direction, and it tends to slightly spiral around its intended course, a marked improvement from the Mk.1's violent zig-zags. It has a maximum flight time of about 25 seconds, and a maximum range of four miles in that time, and the seeker head can find a target from two to three miles on a good day. It has a 25lb warhead and the entire missile is 500lb.
[Expensive] 3 Ore, 3 Oil, Complex - "Storm" GMRL-ECP-61S: A 250lb active radar homing missile with a 6km range and 5m effective blast radius. Fired from 4-rail trucks (with radar) and aircraft mounts. It has a poor resolution, greatly decreasing the reliability of locking onto non-huge aerial targets and making locking onto surface targets next-to-impossible, though large ships prove easy targets. Equipped with an HE or ARC warhead, with the ARC warhead using a chain SynthOil reaction to generate arcing electricity frying electronics and melting metal as it jumps from conductor to conductor.
[Expensive] 3 Ore, 4 Oil
Land Vehicles- M3T1A1 Raider: The Raider is a Diesel-Electric tracked APC designed to serve as a base platform for many roles. It has light RHA armor with a sloped front, plus slats. It holds ten passengers and three crew, making it look like a large metal box. It has an interchangeable turret, which is very wide and flat with medium armor. Default armament is a Can shredder, plus 6 external Thumper barrels for smoke grenades and an RPG, these can only be reloaded from the outside. It's also chemical warfare protected, and last but not least, amphibious, with a trim vane and two electric powered propellers. Exits are on large rear hatch and one small top hatch, only latter can be used while afloat.
[Cheap] 3 Ore 2 Oil - Privateer 1 1/2 Ton Truck: Cannala's first truck, it's a cabover on an antiquated 3-cylinder, the transmission only has a forward and reverse setting. It's still better than horses, though.
[Cheap] 2 Ore, 2 Oil, Provides 1 TC - "Halberd"-Electromagnetic Coil Cannon Battletank ECCB-60: A large silent tank armed with a 120mm coilgun and a coaxially-mounted unpowered auto-loading Osprey. Has a respectable speed for its size, and the Coilgun turret is powered but manually aimed. Powered by two SynthOil batteries - one provides enough power for six Coilgun shots, the other provides enough power for four hours of full throttle movement and ten hours of less-fast "travel" movement.
[Very Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil - "Hydra" Electric-Motor Flak Tank EMFT-61: A "tank" where the turret is an unarmored cage on top of the squat chassis where the gunner sits; four self-loading automatic cannons fire automatically consecutively flak shells to shoot down aircraft and infantry. The turret can be angled downwards effectively to shoot at infantry; limited ammo supply means the gunner has to be somewhat conservative with his firing patterns and can't just fill the sky with flak. Electric computer & radar guidance overlays a digital crosshair on a small sheet of "glass" in front of the gunner that is overlaid on top of the physical crosshair to maximize accuracy, allowing for decent accuracy as long as the aircraft isn't too fast or evasive. The commander and driver reside in the cramped interior and exit/enter largely via a door to the side, with the front of the tank being heavily angled downward for firing angle reasons. The turret is an open-air cage making the gunner vulnerable. Can travel for 10 hours on a full SynthOil battery, and the gun doesn't require power to operate.
[Very Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil
Air Vehicles- M1938 A-3 'Parrot': The Parrot is a low-cost air superiority fighter, designed to counter the Yellowjacket. It looks very similar to the Falcon, but without the complicated prop system and reduced to a 10-cyclinder, normally aspirated power plant. It too is fully aluminum, and contains most of the little features like retractable gear, an oxygen system, and a reflex sight. It is actually quite heavily armed with two Muerte heavy machine guns and two Can Perforators, though the perforators don't have a lot of ammo.
[Cheap] 3 Ore, 2 Oil
- Macaw Strike Craft: A variant of the Parrot with a turboprop engine hastily retrofitted in. Has a Short range and is faster+more agile than the Parrot but still significantly more sluggish than the Spearhead or any other jet aircraft. Equipped with five 100lb bomb/missile mounts but has no other weapons.
- M1942 A-5B 'Spearhead-B' Air Superiority Fighter: Following Forenia's Thunderbird design, the Spearhead is an aluminum-built fighter with two turbojet engines. It features a rounded canopy, swept wings, pointy nose, and the engines are under each wing, but hug the body closely; the inlets are flush with the fuselage. A heavy Can Shredder sits in the nose. Two Morei turbojets burn kerosene and take some advantage of experiences of the Bull tank's turboshaft, it includes a water-cooling system (the shared radiator creates a third intake under the body). Despite carrying more weight, it's very nearly as fast as the Thunderbird, but it does have trouble recovering from stalls. On the other hand, when it's keeping good speed it can make impressive turns thanks to its hydraulic control system; the pilot can pull the relatively large control surfaces with ease. The Can Shredder can do serious damage to bombers from a safe distance. A hardpoint for 500lb bombs or missiles has been added under each wing.
[Expensive] 4 Ore, 4 Oil
Navy- Corsair Destroyer: The Corsair is a moderate sized ship with light (for a ship) steel hull armor. It has a light cannon armament of two hydraulic-equipped Nightwind cannons and four Can Shredders. However, its main armament is its Shark Torpedo launchers (it has a couple on each side) and newly-invented Seahorse mines, which use the same warheads as Shark torpedoes but rest on the sea surface, detonating on cpntact with ships. It is powered by steam turbines and easily outpaces battleships like the Kalmar, Kraken and Kurokami.
[Expensive] 4 Ore, 3 Oil - Santos-Class Naval Aircraft Support Vessel: The Santos is a large aircraft carrier. It is about the size of the Khorne but not armored. It's powered by four oil-burning steam turbines, which are more powerful than coal ones. The hangar deck stores two dozen fighters, moved to the flight deck by a hydraulic lift. On deck is an Eagle Eye Radar system, con tower, a few Firecracker AA guns and a miscellaneous autocannons wherever there's spare room. It also has a decent sized flight deck, with an arrester cable for landing aircraft, and two overlapping runways with room for ready aircraft on deck. It also has a steam catapult, which allows it to launch some planes which could not normally take off from its short runway. [5 Ore, 4 Oil]
[Very Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil - SLS-61 Magpie: The Shore-Landing Ship is a basic landing ship with a bow able to open up with a ramp to allow vehicles and troops onto the shore, and has extremely basic treads to de-beach itself. Has Thin armor and a few mounts for infantry rifles on the top to provide basic covering fire. Powered by Generation 1 SynthOil engines, which requires it to use the majority of its cargo space to hold enough SynthOil to make it across the sea without running out of fuel. Normally has a modest capacity for soldiers (and capable of holding a few moderate-sized vehicles), but the fuel requirement limits it to only a small amount of soldiers and/or perhaps one tank at best.
[Cheap] 3 Ore, 3 Oil
Chemicals & Drugs- Spice: An extremely potent manufactured drug resulting in extreme schizophrenia, delusions of power, frequent seizures, and eventually death. Extremely addictive. Those who undergo the week-long "Goldeneye" treatment in a CryoStat tank become accustomed (and permanently addicted) to low dosages of Spice, enabling very high awareness of surroundings and mildly increased reaction and thinking speeds when under the influence of the drug.
[Very Expensive] 5 Rare Chemicals, Complex. - Combat Drug 'Fury': A Spice-based drug that massively decreases reaction time, and lasts for ~2 hours. Also incites rage, decreasing soldier effectiveness at range and chances of occasional friendly fire. Mild hallucinations are common, preventing users from being effective at recon/espionage/etc. roles. Makes veins much more apparent and red. Addictive, and takes effect >5 minutes after injection.
[Expensive] 3 Rare Chemicals - Metal Recominators: A special mixture that separates pure metal from ore, obsoleting a large part of Aratam's refining industry. A variant can also be used to fuse metal with (likely) any other matter.
Provides 1 Ore.
Other- Standard Uniform: A plain red featureless uniform. The red's mild enough that it doesn't really stick out.
- CryoStat Tank: A large three-meter tall "coffin" with a small glass vertical slit inside showing a tank. Dozens of tubes connect it to the other machinery required for operation, taking up ~36 square meters of space total. Trained technicians monitor and operate it and prepare subjects for submerging. Subjects are put into "stasis" via a numbing solution they're submersed in, and medical drugs are constantly pumped into their body via dozens of injection sites prepared pre-submerging. Once taken out, subjects are put into a machine to recover from the effects of the tank. A day stabilizes minor life-threatening wounds, and a week stabilizes near all wounds. A month starts completely healing scars and generally brings up health status to pristine, and a year can restore lost limbs. Also used for life-extending "rejuvenation" processes by important people.
[Very Expensive] 4 Rare Chemicals, Complex - SynthOil: SMRO-58 "SynthOil" is an advanced form of oil - it's made using a combination of oil and other chemicals, making a much more stable and energy-dense solution. Has a peculiar property - with the right tools, it can directly produce electricity.
Provides 1 Oil
Infrastructure- The Refinery: An extremely secretive facility hidden under the canopy in a remote part of the rainforest, identifiable only by its smoke. Contains large liquid storage tanks and refineries for the production of chemicals, well-equipped laboratories, cells for test subjects, a steady supply of test subjects from Aratam's prisoners, and more. Useful as a base for chemical research.
Provides 1 Rare Chemical - Division of Biological Manipulation: An abandoned set of rooms on top of the Refinery; originally intended for biological manipulation research but was never finished due to a sudden test subject escape.
- Embassy "The Brewery": An embassy for Cannalan diplomats that doubles as a highly advanced brewery of Aratam's signature drink, Arachaca. The Cannalans can see the brewing process below through their glass flooring and taps straight form the brewery are available for Arachaca straight from the source. Uses basic electronic systems for very limited automation in conjunction with its general advanced brewing systems.
Author
Topic: Mad Arms Race - Aratam Design Bureau (Fall 1965 - Final Design Phase) (Read 61484 times)