'Meteor' Air Frigate
Making almost no use of aerodynamic principles to stay aloft, the Meteor is based on the failure of the original Torch prototypes. Unable to fly in the conventional sense, those Torches nevertheless achieved vertical takeoff through vectored thrust and the sheer power of the Gel-Matrix Bio-Paste Reactor.
The Meteor is far larger than a prototype Torch, of course, but it's engines also *work*, operating by the magnetic expulsion of a plasma formed by electrocombustion of SynthOil (the same plasma harvested for power by a GM-BP reactor). Even with this powerful lifting force, six engine pods along the underside are needed for redundancy, with an additional pair at the rear providing most of the forwards thrust. All engine pods are vectored, so maneuverability is reasonable and balance can be maintained while damaged.
Lessons learned from the Lantern include heavier use of recombinated armor, but also the need for significant weaponry. The primary weapon of the Meteor is a set of manually operated anti-air Tesla Cannon turrets with better range, power, and rate of fire than handheld models. Secondary armament is a pair of coilcannons able to shell ground positions smaller than a Nightwind and largely mechanized rather than crew-served, and a set of Storm missile launch rails.
The crown jewel of the Meteor is a full radar set, able to provide accurate reads of enemy plane and dropship movement through the air, and a radio officer to communicate this information.
Design: 'Meteor' Air Frigate(Hard) (3+3)-1 = 5: Average
Perhaps 'Meteor' wasn't the
best name, as it usually suggests violently falling and burning up in the atmosphere. But we won't let a little superstition about the name stop us! Unless that superstition is coming from the B.E.O., then it's rational superstition. But this superstition is coming from our engineers, so we can ignore them as usual.
The Meteor's proper name is more fitting. Air Frigate. It really is more like a boat than an airplane. Caring not for aerodynamics, it stays aloft through sheer power alone. Most of the Meteor wasn't particularly hard, but the main challenge for our engineers was creating proper plasma engines based off of the GM-BP Reactor. Part of the process used in the GM-BP's electrocombustion of SynthOil involves copious amounts of plasma. Severe modifications to the GM-BP allows us to vent this plasma at speeds high enough to grant surprising amounts of thrust. The GM-BP Thruster is still relatively bulky and large even without radiation shielding (though it's unintionally a bit safer), but not anywhere near as heavy as the Reactor.
Six of these thrusters give the Meteor its propulsion. Four are placed in rows of two on the bottom, used primarily for keeping it in the air, though heavy amounts of potential thrust and thruster vectoring mean that they can still provide a large amount of thrust in ways that aren't "upwards" and can compensate when some thrusters are rendered nonfunctional. The last two are placed in the back and are primarily for forwards propulsion, but can also be vectored well.
In terms of these thrusters, the Meteor is very durable. If a bottom thruster on each side is destroyed and both rear thrusters are gone, then it can still stay in the air. Though it'd move at a fairly crippled place. If both bottom thrusters on a side are destroyed but both rear thrusters are intact, the Meteor can stay in the air with very little horizontal movement. But as long as it has two thrusters, it can make a relatively safe landing (and a non-
lethal landing with one).
These thrusters require large amounts of SynthOil to keep running, and also produce power on the side for the rest of the airborne ship.
Quite fast, the Meteor is not easily described as a "
lumbering behemoth". At full throttle forward, it can easily outrun ground forces of any composition or size. Yet it would not be able to fully compete with the agility and speed of fighter aircraft.
A mechanized coilcannon the bottom can shell enemy positions to devastating effect. Autoloaders reload them at fairly slow yet respectable pace, and centralized control systems allow crew to operate them in a coordinated and effective manner. Targeting systems are lacking, and while SEEMs can man the coilcannons more effectively, their abilities aren't as useful very high up and they're better used elsewhere. Precision bombarding is not an advantage of the Meteor. Storm missiles were considered as another armament, yet dismissed for perceived low effectiveness (the poor targeting combined with the relatively poor agility of the Meteor makes them useless against Merethan fighters, and the coilcannon is much better at assaulting ground targets) and unnecessary cost additions.
Three top-mounted anti-air Tesla Cannon turrets and one center-bottom-mounted turret provide protection against Merethan air assets. Operated by crew with mechanized turning and aiming, a single turret has much greater range and rate of fire compared to handheld models. With reload times in seconds and the ability of a missed shot to still arc onto enemies, these make remarkable anti-air weapons. Especially when operated by SEEMs, who have even been able to take down incoming missiles in testing drills (assuming they're already in the turret and not already juggling targets). However, constant operating of more than one turret drains the frigate's capacitors faster than they're charged by the thrusters and can quickly drain surplus power, potentially quintupling the "reload" rate between Tesla blasts.
The Meteor has one internal deck and the surface deck. The internal is mostly filled with machinery for operating the various technical aspects, from the turbines to the radio to the large SynthOil tanks and weapons and access to these bits are limited to maintenance technicians and damage control personnel, ideally with radiation suits. The only place where a notable amount of crew is expected to gather inside is the bridge. Crewmembers live on the surface in covered areas almost vaguely resembling slightly more advanced camps on the ground, with posts bolted to the surface holding up canvas and cloth to protect our men from the weather and sun. A few formal "buildings" dot the surface, for certain operating necessities of the frigate as well as proper quarters for a very small portion of the crew.
The entire Meteor has heavy recombination armor everywhere possible. Armor at this scale, even with recombination techniques, is very expensive yet very useful. Especially when agility can't be relied on to dodge attacks. All known Merethan weapons should have a very hard time disabling or destroying the Meteor. However, it wouldn't be too hard to destroy a Meteor's combat effectiveness -- everything on the surface deck is not
essential for continued operation in the short term, but if they're destroyed then the Meteor can lose a large portion, if not most, of its crew and crew facilities. Turrets are armored (though not as armored as the rest of the hull), but on the top they can be more easily disabled as consistent bombardment can prevent crew from getting to man the turrets or just destroy the turrets themselves. The Coilcannon, operated from the bridge and mostly being inside, is largely resistant. Radar can't be destroyed in a single hit, but with the right targets the effectiveness of a Meteor's radar can go down.
We predict great survivability, as long as a Meteor isn't overwhelmed by enemies. Once the capacitors for the turrets is depleted (likely from too many targets), it's extremely possible that bombs, missiles, and strafing runs can get through the turrets' screening and do enough damage to the vulnerable surface crew facilities to neuter a Meteor's combat effectiveness.
Finally, a full radar suite allows for excellent battlefield intelligence. The data is routed to the on-board bridge and command center where it's interpreted and quickly distributed to any assets nearby who could beneit from the information. Many high-ups in the military have expressed interest and poorly-hidden excitement at commanding from a Meteor. Though ((due to the lack of a proper radio design/revision)) not every soldier will have a radio and thus be able to immediately receive intelligence. Turrets and the coilcannon receive direct radar information, however are not automated based on radar. SEEMs are arguably much better than Radar-targetting turrets.
If this overwhelming continues past this point and the Meteor is unable to retreat into friendly territory, eventually the armor will be worn through and the Meteor will crash or be forced to make al anding.
This ship will hopefully be a central point of our forces' advance forward, providing close air support, air screening, and valuable intelligence at every step of the way. Transport of troops is also a suggested and probable use, though due to the fact that the ship doesn't
have much space for personnel and has to land itself to transport personnel and cargo means that this won't be a
frequent use. Its heavy armor, good intelligence, and well-equipped weaponry is of tremendous use.
The Meteor, due to its powerful weapons and extreme armor, is very expensive. It costs
8 Ore and
7 Oil, making it a
National Effort. The military is still excited to try it out.
Transport Capacity: 2/3 (2/2 Oil Imported)
Resources: 3 Ore,
4 Oil,
2 Rare ChemicalsWeapons- "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 40s 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- 'Lantern' A-7 Armored Jet: A large jet built with metal-recombinated materials, giving it good structural integrity and relatively good durability. Massive amounts of recombinated armor are present all across the aircraft. Direct hits by Shrike missiles can be survived with only moderate damage, and air-bursts/lasers are much less effective. 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 armor give the Lantern a great speed but not quite 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, with no other weapon capacity.
[Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil (Expense can only be as low as current SEEM expense) - 'Meteor' Air Frigate: A gigantic flying vessel, more akin to a boat than any traditional aircraft. Foregoing aerodynamics, it's propelled by 6 (4 on bottom, 2 on back) thrust-vectoring plasma GM-BP Thrusters (based on expelling plasma generated by the GM-BP process seen in Reactors for large thrust) that also produce its power. It can move quickly and isn't too sluggish, being able to easily outpace any kind of ground force yet being much slower than Merethan aircraft. Four Tesla cannon turrets -- 3 on top, 1 on bottom -- with greater range and rate of fire to their counter parts powered by the Meteor's capacitors provide an excellent anti-air screen, being able to fire once per few seconds and being able to intercept missiles and bombs when operated by SEEMs. A coilcannon array on the bottom largely mechanized allows for slow yet respectfully-paced terrific bombarding of ground targets, with mediocre targeting. A full radar suite and command center/bridge inside the hull give excellent battlefield intelligence and this information is distributed via radio to nearby forces, and to turrets on the frigate. Very heavily armored and able to resist constant Shrike bombardment for a relatively long time, yet limited internal space forces any non-essential for short-term operation facilities outside on the hull where they're more akin to fancy camps, providing a convenient target to greatly decrease combat effectiveness of everything but minimal radar operation and Coilcannon operation. Constant firing of more than one Tesla turret fairly quickly drains capacitors, quintupling tesla charge times. Thrust vectoring allows the Meteor to stay in the air with multiple missing thrusters. An internal bridge serves as an excellent mobile field command center.
[National Effort] [8 Ore], [7 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. 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. Experienced SEEM Guides facilitate this Journey across the barrier into the Astral Realm. 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.
[Expensive] 5 Rare Chemicals,
- 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.
Astral- Blackwell Technique: Through channeling Astral Energy into a specific area, an Astral-trained operative can create a reflection of the Astral Realm coded for the astral connection of one specific person (targeted via line of sight or accurate recreation). This person will suffer severe symptoms ranging from death to severe brain damage to memory loss to seizures to full-blown hallucinations to extreme paranoia and more. But permanent affects are rare for those without long exposure times. Non-targeted and non-Astral-trained individuals will suffer milder, all-short-term symptoms only when looking at the Reflection. Looking at a recreation (i.e. television screen) of the Reflection will only affect people who've already seen that exact Reflection, recreating their prior symptoms.
All Astral-trained operatives can invoke this. But it requires intense concentration and 10 seconds to create the reflection, and continued intense concentration to maintain the reflection.
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.
- Stormcaller Circle: A shift-based group of the top SEEMs in Aratam, "bonded" with tendrils of Tesla energy embedded throughout the atmosphere surrounding the continent. They can use their tremendous amounts of Astral energy at store to manipulate these tendrils and thus weather. Every season, the Bureau may vote on a single theatre and single weather phenomenon to invoke there. Our troops will be prepared (with the equipment that they already have, that is) ahead of time, but we can't micromanage the phenomenon to further aid our troops.
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.
Author
Topic: Mad Arms Race - Aratam Design Bureau (Fall 1965 - Final Design Phase) (Read 61488 times)