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[Man of Paper]

Just got to say I appreciate you taking my comments constructively. A girl at my job quit after I had her deal with her own mistakes instead of fixing them for her, and since she left crying a rumor started to spread that I was some kind of rude asshole. In truth she was being babied by everyone and couldn't deal with being told to step her game up and fix her shit (in a nicer manner), but it's still got me looking at everything I do and asking myself if I'm actually some kind of asshole.

My post could have easily been misinterpreted as aggressive, and I wouldn't blame you, but I'm glad you responded in a way that at least implied you knew I wasn't trying to be a dick.

Anyhow, I'm happy enough with that change that if the votes got tied between our facilities I'd be fine with swapping over to avoid a deadlock, I just prefer the possibilities the black chamber offers.

[Blood_Librarian]

Although it is mostly my own taste, I dislike how short most of the entries are. Maybe its because I make mine huge, but maybe next revision or design I'll try and either tone it back or write up someone else up to my preference.

[Man of Paper]

Mine are short to give the GM a little room for interpretation, but I can definitely add more detail and fluff if that's what people want. I was contemplating writing up some one-off posts about some dudes experiences on the battlefield just for funsies, so throwing more detail into the mix is okay for me.

[The Ensorceler]

I can try to add more, but I tend to add details instead of stories to my stuff and I'm not sure I'm any different from you. The rocket launch wants a rocket into space, contact with an otherworldly entity, stealing from Russians, biological and environment testing, and a Rare Chemicals. You're able to stretch your feature-to-writing ratio a little further than everyone else, but mostly you add features for the sake of more story to tell. I don't dislike your designs, especially not for brainstorming, but they bloat a bit in ways that other people should avoid when adding to their descriptions. I'm not even sure you need to change, just don't expect similar proposals...

I'll do my best to get more writing into mine.

[Blood_Librarian]

So many things to do, alas. Maybe we can figure out some type of Spice 2.0 in the following urns so we don't have to deal with the mess we have anymore.

[Chiefwaffles]

The Black Chamber
Once humanity made contact with another realm it was only a matter of time before they dedicated resources to exploring it. Despite the name, The Black Chamber is no more intimidating than your standard Aratam laboratory, and is not a single chamber but a whole facility built beneath The Refinery. Within The Black Chamber scientists and engineers dedicate all their time, effort, and resources to break through into the Astral realm, both mentally and physically. Mereth has discovered a new resource that could turn the tide of the war, it's time we begin exploiting our own.

(Normal) (3+4) = 7: Superior Craftsmanship

What we have right now is a glimpse into the Astral Realm. It's only through intense and rigorous training and transformation that the best of the best -- the SEEMs -- are able to even feel it. For all that we've relied on it, we've only felt it; we've never looked into it. The Black Chamber aims to change that.
SEEM Commandos, chosen from the front as those believed to be the closest to the Astral Realm, are pulled back and assigned to months of training. Practically meditation. Then they are immersed within heavily-modified CryoStat tanks in the Black Chamber (hooked up to as much analysis equipment as we can spare), and are told to attempt to reach the Astral Realm.

It's an unimaginably dark place.
It sits beside our world; adjacent to it. Practically touching it. It's full of strings connecting everything; an incomprehensibly complex web of reality. Subjects who've successfully entered the Astral Realm feel distinctly alone, yet not truly. Like they're being watched by things that they cannot see. With a simple pulling of the strings, one can change reality. Through observation of the strings, one may see behind reality.
The rare spot in the Astral Realm has soft subtle illumination beating back the harsh void pervasive in the Realm -- these are those closest to the Realm, including our SEEM Commandos and (we believe) the Merethan soldiers reported to feel the presence of SEEMs. But if one looks closely, they can feel the presence of every human mind in the Astral realm, each their own individual flame. But only the strongest flames can illuminate the void.

As of now, we have no tangible benefits from the Black Chamber. But the knowledge it's given us of the Astral Realm is perhaps more valuable than anything else in the world or even beyond it.

Spoiler: Designs (click to show/hide)

Transport Capacity: 2/3 (2/2 Oil Imported)
Resources: 3 Ore, 4 Oil, 2 Rare Chemicals

Weapons

• "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 60s to charge to Level 3 (charging can be paused but the charge decays slightly 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. Soldiers pre-charge to Level 3 when aware of hostile situations, but are still vulnerable to ambushes.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 2 Oil
• "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
• "Red Skies" Multiple Missile Launcher: A 300 lb version of the Storm missile using Inertial guidance and adapted entirely for surface-to-surface use. Has a SynthOil-based incendiary payload that's capable of effectively burning through armor, but is less immediately destructive. Has a range of 15 km. Its guidance allows it to easily and effectively target any ground point, but it can't change course mid-flight and can't actively track any targets; its effectiveness in accuracy mostly is based on what intelligence the operator has when firing. Intended for use as surface-to-surface artillery.
  [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. 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 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: An antique Cannalan truck somehow still being used for cargo transport.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 2 Oil, Provides 1 TC
• "Glaive"-Electromagnetic Coil Cannon Battletank ECCB-72: A large silent tank armed with a 120mm coilgun and a Reactor-charged coaxial-mounted Tesla Rifle (capable of firing a steady stream of L1/L2 shots). Has a respectable speed for its size, and the Coilgun turret is powered but manually aimed. Powered by a GMBP Reactor, allowing for unlimited movement and power for Coilgun shots, making the only main logistical concerns for the tank being Coilgun ammunition and crew supplies.[Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil
• "Ettin" Electric-Motor Flak Tank EMFT-61-B: A "tank" where the turret is an unarmored cage on top of the squat chassis where the gunner sits; two self-loading automatic cannons fire automatically in consecutive fashion 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 armored, but has poor visibility. 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

• M1942 A-5B 'Spearhead-B' Air Superiority Fighter: Following Forenia's Thunderbird design, the Spearhead is an aluminum-built fighter with two turbojet engines. 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). 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. A hardpoint for 500lb bombs or missiles has been added under each wing.
  [Expensive] 4 Ore, 4 Oil
• M1948 A-6 'Torch' Jet: A large jet built with metal-recombinated materials, giving it good structural integrity and relatively good durability. An integrated Gel-Matrix Bio-Paste Reactor is used to power electrical systems and SynthOil tanks are used to fuel both the reactor and the combustion Ramjets. The heavy weight of the reactor and its shielding give the Torch a speed notably higher than the Torch but still not matching Mereth's Blizzard jet craft. Different systems provide the Torch with great relative agility, but only SEEM Operatives are capable of properly operating the complex controls in the airplane (though their enhanced abilities are a huge boon with speed and agility). 2 always-powered Ospreys are mounted on the front, along with two Bomb/Missile mounts on each wing.
  [Very Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil (Expense can only be as low as current SEEM expense)

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. 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. [5 Ore, 4 Oil]
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil
• SLS-61 Magpie: 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 Gen 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.
  [Expensive] 5 Rare Chemicals.
  
  • SEEM: Systemic Elimination of the Entropic Mind. An extremely intensive and long procedure where top-ranked veterans are subjected to week-long bouts of sensory deprivation in CryoStat tanks, and have their mind essentially transformed into a new form via the combined use of modified Metal Recombinators and Spice. For now, this allows survivors of the treatment to exhibit extreme (much higher than Goldeneyes) awareness of surroundings, visible or not. This awareness manifests itself in many ways, from avoiding traps/bombardments to knowing where to shoot at to knowing when one's being shot at, and more.
    [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 Recombinators: 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

• R.A./M.P. Suit: A metal/ceramic/rubber recombinated suit of armor with heating/cooling capabilities and a quick-inject system where any single one of 6 vials stored in a back compartment can be instantly injected w/ instant effects by a series of buttons on the wrist. Contains a default adrenaline mix, but vials can be filled with FURY, SEEM, or other drugs. A particle filter and visor (w/ internal red lighting) covered by a recombinated hood sit on the head, and a jacket covers the rest of the suit for appearance/morale sake. Light, yet surprisingly durable: survival rates of soldiers are increased greatly across the board, with soldiers oftentimes being able to shrug off light-caliber shots from Merethan rifles. Looks like this, but with a slightly-red-glowing visor instead.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore
• CryoStat Tank: A large three-meter tall "coffin" with a small glass vertical slit inside showing a tank. A single "set" of machinery required for operation, taking up ~36 square meters of space total, can manage roughly a dozen CryoStat tanks at a time. Basic automation assists technicians, allowing for a single technician to manage many CryoStat tanks. Subjects are put into "stasis" via a numbing solution they're submersed in, and medical drugs in the solution naturally infuse into the bloodstream through the skin. Once taken out. Use is tracked through a computer-assisted bureaucracy dubbed the "CryoState". 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.
  [Cheap] 2 Rare Chemicals
• 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 Reactor: 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
• The Militarized Baseline: Our soldiers are enhanced above regular humans (in notable, but not major ways) in many categories; namely strength, reflexes, and intelligence. All soldiers now have implanted ports for quick drug infusion, and a logistical structure is in place to facilitate the drug infusion and treatments of the entire Aratamite military.
• The Black Chamber: A giant facility built beneath the Refinery full of specially-modified CryoStat tanks, training areas, niche laboratories, and subjects attempting to reach the world beyond ours: the Astral Realm.

• 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.

The Revision Phase of Summer 1963 has begun.

[Man of Paper]

Gotta say I'm scratching my chin with a smirk. I say we reattempt FEAR or attempt an astralized treatment of a previously failed drug, much like how we worked with the initial Spice and made Fury.

That, or something to counter their air. I've got an idea for a weapon for our design next turn, but I'm on a phone on a bus so I'm not quite able to rip it out of my notebook.

Either way, I feel like we have the opportunity to push some ambitious astralbased designs and revisions now. I want to see some mad proposals.

[Blood_Librarian]

The Overwatch Program

Simply put, The SEEM Program has far too many "duds" for the amount of persons and resources funneled into it. With the advent of the Black Chamber and multiple solid theories based on the structure and foundation of the Astral present, it has come to our attention that an opportunity has became apparent to our SEEM. With a solid foundation of personnel in the program able to reliably manipulate our universe from the Astral, we can reliably increase the process by which SEEM Operators are created.

By directly moving the final process of SEEM creation too the Black Chamber, we can have senior personnel watch and protect personnel going through the Astral awakening by manipulating the Astral to become temporarily more hospitable for human minds while forcing them to "wake up" in the realm for a faster process.

With the guiding hand of Senior personnel in the Black Chamber, it should be possible to turn Golden Eye Personnel directly into the SEEM Program through a 2 phase system by which half are called back for processing, and then the other half is processed once the last of the first phase is processed for a fully tested system. It is theorized that more veteran Gold-eyes are opened up enough to the Astral for the SEEM process to function despite their relatively tainted bodies, allowing far higher numbers of personnel can be augmented in addition  to relatively weaker willed persons that would otherwise be ineligible for the SEEM Process (Like Recon and weaker Special forces members who are only augmented with the Baseline)

Theoritically, even Necropoliticans could be augmented.

OVERWATCH (1): Blood_librarian

[The Ensorceler]

The chemical side of swapping Goldeneyes to SEEMs is interesting. Because Goldeneyes already have Spice in their system blocking the... metallic recombinator+Spice cocktail the SEEMs use, they probably have to go cold turkey for a while before they can be dosed up and fully converted to SEEMs. I'll try to get a revision up, too.

[Talion]

Empathy Enhancer ‘Synergy’
Our drug testing of compounds similar to Spice has revealed another useful drug. Stimulating the right supramarginal gyrus and other parts of the brain responsible for empathic understanding, this drug facilitates training and cooperation, creating soldiers with a deep understanding of their squadmates every move. This increases morale and allows a greater complexity of strategy at the tactical level.

[Man of Paper]

Going through the thread for a good revision idea. I like the idea of "upgrading" to SEEM all around though (please correct me if that's not what OVERWATCH intends to do).

Spoiler: Idea #1 (click to show/hide)

The Iron Legion

Simply put, The Subjects that run through this process have the Multiple of there epidermis replaced with a high tactile metal (Perhaps Titanium if possible, if not a specially alloyed steel) along with the additional modifications to their nervous system. The Recombination chemicals are used on Cryostatic induced individuals while the limbs of the subject are stripped of their skin, given a much thicker application of the Recombinators to cement in pre-placed metal plates on their arms and legs. The end result is that the arms are much, much more durable, In addition, the Peripheral Nervous System (Everything but the brain) is changed just as much as the Central Nervous system is.

The end result is a soldier whose entire nervous system has been developed, altered on an intrinsic level to hopefully be superior in every way. Their skin is steely and gray while holding the natural regenerative process of "normal" skin. (Incidentally, the subjects now require a specialized diet of ground metal nodules in addition to their normal diets.). The mind of the people who go through the process of becoming a legionary is slightly scrambled due to the intensive process of the ordeal, but resources are in place for them to adjust, requiring up to a year of adjustment (In optimal cases) after the process is done so that the soldier is used to their enhanced body.  Only the skin and the mind is modified (Muscles are a secondary priority if possible.), but "ports" emplaced to allow easier (Syringe based) along with built-in reservoirs allows the soldiers to live up to two months without injections before going mad. For some reason, the subject's hair may come into existence with extremely odd coloration, usually in the neon blues, greens, or reds. other colors exist, and the scientists aren't really sure why this happens.

Revision: Iron legion
Hard: (1+1)-1 = 1: Utter Failure

Well, we estimate that this project would have been harder due to the "jumping right in". We were to attempt modifying subjects' peripheral nervous systems, their skin, and include ports/reservoirs for Spice-derived drugs. Even with the headstart on organic modification we got from our prior design project, this is a lot of work for its allotted time.

We've done this in a way. We have subjects who have gone through the procedure. They have metal skin and haphazard-yet-functional "ports" for easy injection of drugs. The ports can be fitted by tubing to another source (say - if we wanted to "hook them up" to a larger tank) or a syringe can be injected into the ports.
The problem is a doozy. Every subject who has gone through the process is dead. Very dead. Not "we just lost him!" or "they can't survive long!" but rather they very decisively die during the process. Luckily the loss of test subjects isn't particularly harmful to our efforts. But the loss to science is another story.

The first problem is the method of application. We're unable to get the Metal Recombinators to properly "integrate" the metal plating to replace the skin. As far as the subject is concerned, they're simply skinned alive but now in a shape-conforming metal coffin. While this has to be addressed if we ever want to give our subjects serious natural armor, we can always simply go with a simpler solution of "reinforcing" existing skin with the Metal Recombinators. The real problem hasn't manifested at this point.

Metal Recombinators are, ultimately, designed to strip an entire piece of ore down to the metal and the rest of the rock. The variant we use for the "reinforcement" procedure is practically the reverse - combining two materials seamlessly, in a way. But the "entire piece" part remains.
Our reinforcement variant "attempts" to modify the entire body. While simple tissues such as skin can handle the reinforcement, more sensitive parts of the body - like the central and peripheral nervous system, among others - can't handle this. Their functions are fundamentally disrupted by the reinforcement procedure, causing the entire body to simply stop working. Some of our scientists believe that, based on recent external studies regarding DNA, this is due to wholescale modification of the subject's DNA. It's a slow and - if the subject were conscious - painful process. As the Metal Recombinator spreads through the body, parts of it just stop working. A grim fate. To our R&D efforts, that is.

So overall, the Iron Legion project is a bust. For now. We have confidence that a revisit to it could give much more viable results now that we know more about what we're dealing with. We've learned a decent bit on how our techniques interact with the human body and its modification.

Steel Legion:

While most of the engineers and scientists we have have kept occupied with the need for constant evolution in our current war, a few kept to themselves, working on a way to make viable an idea that had proven, at the time, to be a failure.

A few of our researchers have created a possible solution to the very fatal Iron Legion project. While submerged in a CryoTank the subject has it's flesh completely removed in small sections, with the flesh removed from the tank, recombinated with a titanium alloy, then reapplied to the subject before the CryoTank can completely heal it over. This should result in the flesharmor bonding to newly forming flesh naturally. The subjects also have a port installed on their chest in which they can self-administer a dosage of any of our select drugs. While our SEEMs and GoldenEyes could undergo this treatment, they are valuable and currently useful, and so we see the greatest potential improvement with our Fury-addicts.

The flesh around the hands is recombinated with a much denser mixture. The force we expect a Steel Legion soldier to exert would be enough to make a Grizzly shit itself. This makes aiming harder, but our Furys never cared for accuracy anyways.

Spoiler: Idea #2 (click to show/hide)

Magpie: Shore-Landing Ship SLS-61:

The shore-landing ship is a versatile ship designed to transport infantry from water into amphibious assault. The vehicle is powered by four SynthOil 16-cylinder electric motor engines and two shafts to power the vehicle. It is equipped with two Can Shredder cannons and a derivation of our Storm missiles as a SAM-rail launched cannons, in which the ship is equipped with two of these small and lightweight rail-launchers. The Storm missiles on this vehicle is further refined with the ability to be shot out a rail and than rolls around its own longitudinal axis to stabilize its flight path, much like a bullet fired from a rifled barrel. In essence a precursory system of missile point defense.

As the Magpie nears to land, it engages its treads and climbs up a beach, pulls its large landing door onto land behind it before detonating explosive bolts to release the cables and hose, allowing any passengers on its barge freedom to debark.

Once separated or, indeed, if deployed on land, the Magpie carries its armament of Can Shredders capable of providing suppressive firepower and because it's a autocannon designed for ships and not a personnel rifle, it should easily be able to penetrate their power armor users, or they will suffer massive damage from the knock back of a ship-mounted gun . It can also launch its basic Storm missile point defense to give protection to the infantry and vehicles being deployed against swatting away aircraft like an insect to make it difficulty to position them for bombing runs. The Magpie is versatile and can hold a battalion of men, or armored support and less supportive men.

Revision: Magpie Shore-Landing Ship SLS-61
Ludicrous: (3+4)-3 = 4: Below Average

The Magpie represents our attempt to design an entirely new landing craft with missile launching capabilities, improvements to Storm missiles, hold an armament of Can Shredders, hold a battalion of soldiers and/or vehicles, and do more, all from scratch.
In a revision.
Needless to say, this is very very very hard. Not impossible, but its difficulty could be described as ludicrous given our constraints. But we managed some degree of "pulling through".


First off, no missiles. That's just not practical with our time constraints.
It can carry a modest amount of infantry or a handful of vehicles that are delivered using a ramp and door on the bow, combined with very basic (the ship can beach itself using propellers, then just barely unbeach itself using these) treads. Can shredders were considered, but as we don't have the actual blueprints for them, spending a (normally small) amount of time to "rip them off" Cannalan designs isn't impractical given the context of this design revision. So instead, we've included a handful of mounts for Ospreys at the front of the ship for basic covering fire.

It uses the same SynthOil engine (which, by the way, does not operate in cylinders - the way we use SynthOil for power isn't really similar to an internal combustion engine) as our tanks, and shares the fuel efficiency problem. This flaw has a significantly expanded presence here, as the nature of the Magpie combined with our current naval designs means the Magpie has to be able to go from port to beach all by itself, without assistance from other ships.
Now, if we were operating on a scale similar to World War 2, this would make traveling impossible. Luckily, we just have to cross a relatively small stretch of water. Unluckily, this still requires massive amounts of SynthOil to be stored inside where we would keep soldiers and vehicles. If we had some more time, this could have been alleviated somewhat, but we just had none.


Ultimately, the Magpie can technically bring a number of troops (and potentially tanks) to the shores. It has just Thin armor, meaning it's quite vulnerable to fire from enemy positions. It can only deliver an alarmingly small number of troops/vehicles to the shores as most of its cargo space is taken up housing extra SynthOil for the engines to make the trip to the beach. It's at least not specifically unreliable and it at least transports some of our soldiers, but most of the military doesn't have much faith in them right now.

It costs 3 Ore and 3 Oil, making it Expensive.

Jackdaw Landship:

By downsizing the Magpie, removing the propellers, improving the power and efficiency of the treads, adding some armor, and just generally expecting less from it than the original proposed design, we aim to improve our ability to move troops in the upcoming battles in the frozen wasteland that Merethians call home. We expect little natural cover, so being able to rapidly deploy our forces where they're needed is the top priority while working on the Jackdaw. [I imagine it would be shaped similarly to a Sandcrawler from Star Wars for some reason...]

Spoiler: Idea #3 (click to show/hide)

Based off of our advancements with The Black Chamber

Temporal Agents:

Something always felt off about interacting with the Astral Realm, almost like you were flipped upside-down. It's because the Astral Realm somehow manages to both influence and be influenced by ours, but everything we know is wrong here. There. It gets confusing now for everyone involved. But here is what we do know.

We can ever so slightly manipulate time.

It's why our interactions with it have resulted in precognitive abilities. By taking the best of the best, our S.E.E.M. commandos, and training them in the manipulation of reality, they can manifest themselves at points near specific targets, such as an enemy officer in the midst of ordering a charge, or a soldier about to sneak into and clear a room, for a brief moment, which is enough to kill someone, before disappearing from that point in time. As they are technically in two points of time at once for that brief moment, we cycle our S.E.E.M. commandos out in shifts, where they are sent into the Astral for as long as they need to before launching a single attack and then immediately removing themselves from the Astral Realm to prevent whatever kind of damage consistent exposure to that kind of stress to themselves. Or, you know, the Universe.

I mean at this point it could be a revision. Also, as I finished typing this, Dio's Holy Diver started playing.

[The Ensorceler]

Steel Legion does address the "metallizing organs kills them problem... It seems fine, except it doesn't need the chest port because that aspect of the Iron Legion was given to the Baseline.

If we're going to make a Jackdaw out of a shrunken Magpie, we should make it a Raider upgrade instead, because Magpies are supersized Raiders to begin with. It should probably run on a Bio-Paste Reactor, and can host two powered-up Teslas like the Glaive has on its small turret. It could have Red Sky or Storm missiles, but I don't think it needs to do everything the original Magpie specs called for. Heavier armor or an armored plow would be more useful.

I don't think we're getting teleporting time assassins on a revision.

Electro-Boost Ramjet
Built around a Tesla firing rod, and lined with electromagnetic coils, the Electro-Booster Ramjet is incapable of firing 'true' Tesla shots due to the constant suction pulling air away from the rod, but the rod is able to prime that sucked away air and turn it into the same electically active plasma that a Tesla charges to fire its shots. That plasma responds to the electromagnetic field established by the coils and is pushed out at such speeds, the engine provides tremendous thrust in exchange for electricity and air. Fitting onto Torches is a high priority, as the lack of oxygen in the upper atmosphere will not hinder an Electro-Boost Ramjet the way it does combustion engines, giving Torches a place of safety in the skies.

Malign Revelation
The pieces of that so-called cannon, the "Malign Intent". Our... sane... engineers tried so hard to make sense of them. There was no barrel, no loading mechanism, not even any connectors to hold the pieces together. And yet its creator swore, to the day we condemned him to the Refinery, that we just couldn't see the cannon, that it wasn't done. We can see it now, from the Black Chamber, and the connections that tie it to those parts. Brought back to the original construction site and set in place, the bits and pieces of nothing stuck, right in the air, and revealed their purpose as anchors to our world. Given power, what would have rivaled the entire output of all Aratam's power plants when the cannon was designed, we brought it through, gave it form. This still was not enough to manifest it for more than a few moments, but then we metallicly recombinated that cannon-shaped piece of the Astral and bound it between our worlds forever.

It is one of a kind, and not exactly what anyone, even the mad engineer, intended, but it is powerful. It fires Astral shells in a closed loop, using the death created by them to restore its supply. Further study to replicate the processes used to create the cannon and the anchors to bring it to our world will of course be necessary, but as the engineer said, the cannon is starving and must be used as soon as is possible on the field of battle.

The loss of its creator is an enormous setback, but surely one we can overcome with time. They will be recognized posthumously as one of Aratam's greatest thinkers, a martyr to their work.

[Talion]

Looks like we have a good set of options.

OVERWATCH (2): Blood_librarian, Talion
Synergy
Steel Legion
Jackdaw Landship
Temporal Agents
Electro-Boost Ramjet
Malign Revelation

[Man of Paper]

OVERWATCH (3): Blood_librarian, Talion, MoP
Synergy
Steel Legion
Jackdaw Landship
Temporal Agents (1): MoP
Electro-Boost Ramjet
Malign Revelation

Overwatch is fine. It's practical and safe. But we also have everything we need for Temporal Agents at our disposal, it'd just be an additional level of training for SEEMs. Imagine what it'll do to the Merethians if we get this to work even just a couple times! Our Chamber gave us nothing immediately tangible. I imagine it's so things like Temporal Agents would be easier. We got all the puzzle pieces, we just have to put them together!

[The Ensorceler]

OVERWATCH (4): Blood_librarian, Talion, MoP, The_Ensorceler
Synergy
Steel Legion
Jackdaw Landship
Temporal Agents (1): MoP
Electro-Boost Ramjet
Malign Revelation