Gel-matrix Bio-Paste
Our Synthetic Oil is used in a planely crude and broken matter when turned into electricity directly. By rebuilding the entire capacative system and building a concrete set of structual, electrical and mechanical guidelines in the creation of electricity from Synth-Oil, an entire system of electrical production is made; Gel-Matrix Bio-Paste. The carbon chains of the reactives are hit with a type of gamma radiation along with several recently discovered electromagnetic processes, resulting in a burst of inert iron compounds, electrons, and protons. The electrons are immediately disassociated from their atoms into (a large amount of) electricity. overall the reaction has a minor byproduct of heat and exotic particles from the reaction, and under no circumstance should individuals be exposed to an unshielded matrix in operation, but after twenty minutes, the matrix is safe for short-term maintenance provided that no individual has came under long-term exposure. special care must be taken to shield the gel-matrix from personnel, as it is an active radiological hazard when in operation.
Although technically a fusion reaction, it is of a totally different class of fusion then the fission and fusion committed by theoretical "classics" due to the fact that almost all of the energy created goes into sustaining the reaction, and very little of the actual energy itself is released as electrons. However, this still achieves higher energy densities then traditional combustion engines and our previous iteration of synth-oil consumption. It takes some time for the reaction in the synth-oil system to start, as the initial energy required to start it is low in the interests of having as much safety as possible in relation to the fissive materials required to start the reaction.
In deployment, Matrixes look like spheroid blobs of gunmetal navy-blue metal, slapped with radiological hazard signs that hum quietly when in operation when they are fed by tanks of synth-oil. If this metal was removed, one would see a web of piping that connect to various chambers, fuel lines and other systems connected to a tiny sample of nuclear material. In the center of this array are two "combustion" chambers which attach to a transformer, ready to distribute electricity to the systems that require it. In the servicing of this device, the iron that has been pooled to specially made receptacles from the reaction must be removed, as it acts as a radiation soak, and then disposed of properly.
Personal-variants of the matrix cells are perfectly safe to handle provided that the proper guidelines are followed. Matrix cells are projected to replace all forms of synth-oil in use in most battle-field applications.
Design: Gel-Matrix Bio-PasteHard: (2+3)-1 = 4: Below Average
In light of recent
events, the Aratamite government has deemed it necessary to issue the Bureau an additional CryoStat tank. Though they would really like everyone to stop giving themselves lethal radiation poisoning. That'd be really nice, they say.
The Gel-Matrix is a large "nuclear-ish" reactor. It's expensive, it's dangerous, but it works damn well. We've lost numerous lower-ranking engineers in various containment failures, and a few times some leading engineers almost died before making it into the nearest CryoStat. When fed with SynthOil, it produces remarkable amounts of energy. Nothing
extremely groundbreaking, but we dare-say that the current prototypes are the most efficient and productive reactors for their size and expense. By directly breaking down SynthOil with radiation instead of the previous crude process, we lose
much less energy to waste processes.
Now, the problem is obvious. It's, again, really big. Too big to easily fit in any of our vehicles, and most certainly
far too large to even consider using for anything infantry-related at the current moment. It's not
huge - it has a rough radius of 1m. Fitting it into practically any design that's not the size of a small naval vessel or building would be immensely impractical, if not impossible. It's also fairly dangerous and unfit for being used near anything that we expect non-expendable people to spend any amount of time in; the radiation containment does most of the work but enough radiation leaks into the surroundings that harm to nearby biological life over time is very likely.
But these flaws are all the price to pay for something that produces the sheer amount of energy that the Gel-Matrix creates. Our engineers choose to prioritize effectiveness with this design.
Some of the engineers tell us that the radiation problem isn't necessarily a death sentence in terms of immediate practical use. Either don't put humans next to the reactor, just use particularly expendable humans, or do something else. The size, however, probably won't be an easy "fix" and we can't really find anyone particularly optimistic about substantial further miniaturization of a "nuclear-ish" reactor. A reactor certainly isn't cheap, but its expense isn't significant enough to notice a consistent increase in resource cost in designs that use it.
The Matrix is unfortunately not capable of being automatically retrofitted in any designs.
The Necrostate is tentatively installing a few Gel-Matrices well underneath important complexes and already extremely appreciative of the benefits, even if maintenance technicians have "a bit" of radiation poisoning. Though they're waiting for it to be a bit more safer to fully roll it out throughout Aratam.
Transport Capacity: 2/3 (2/2 Oil Imported)
Resources: 3 Ore,
4 Oil,
2 Rare Chemicals1 Resource Credit
Weapons- "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.
[Cheap] 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.
[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.
[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]
[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 - Atlas-class Cargo Ship: A Santos-class with the weaponry and aircraft equipment and just about everything else stripped off. Utilizes SynthOil batteries for general powering of ship, though oil-burning steam turbines from the Santos still power most of it. Uses a system derived from Cryostats to cryogenically freeze perishable cargo as well as people for maximum storage efficiency.
Provides 2 TC
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 - Gel-Matrix Bio-Paste: A 1m-radius spherical "nuclear-ish" reactor that uses gamma radiation to break down SynthOil into electrical energy. Rather efficient and good at making energy, especially compared with anything else in the world comparable in size/expense, but hard to miniaturize and has a notable radiation poisoning issue with anyone spending a notable amount of time in proximity.
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 61493 times)