ME-MAS-62 'Grizzly Armor'
Our lack of proper vehicular armor has been a detriment to our forces for far too long, and now we will address this with the Grizzly Armor. The Grizzly Armor can be more or less summed up as a vastly upscaled Bear Armor, to the point where we can no longer classify it as power armor, but as a vehicle instead; a Mechanized Assault Suit. The Grizzly is large, and its pilot resides in the control pod in the Suit's chest; it's large enough where it'll likely have to crouch to work its way through excavator tunnels, with an estimated height a bit higher than 4 meters. The pilot wears a special suit hooked up to the Suit's control system, translating the pilots movement to the Suit in a manner similar to the Bear Armor (although with 100% less worry of accidentally mulching the pilot's limbs!).
The arms are modular for their armament, although the 'off hand' arms usually have a hand on them; Arm modules include a Bumblebee with recoil dampeners; a massive Shield much like our Bear Troopers wield for the 'off hand'; and a smaller buckler to allow the arm to still perform semi-intricate tasks easily. All modules other than the Shield and Cannon possess a pair of Velociraptor Autocannon or a vehicle ICE Thrower as well for anti-infantry use. Said weapons modules come with an autoloader, meant to load shells in from frankly quite massive clips which themselves can be reloaded by the 'off hand'. There's also a rocket arm loaded with SARUKH compatible rockets as well. Modularity allows new weapon systems to be mounted easily on older grizzlys.
Armor wise, the Grizzly features a heavy duty 120mm on the frontal chest plate with 75mm on the sides and rear of it, protecting the pilot well; and the rest of the Suit features 75mm. The armour and the shield likewise are made of COMBAT plating to offer greater resistance. On top of the COMBAT armour there is an additional 30 mm mangalloy plate to absorb smaller weapon fire without degrading the underlying COMBAT
Due to recent experiences with heat and long term experience with handling cold stuff, the interior of the suit has a climatization system. Heating is provided by electrical resistances, while cooling is provided by a small reservoir of STABIL-ICE. This should give limited surviveability to minor ICE spills and allow to soak up the heat generated by COMBAT, by the environment and by enemy weapons.
Following previous experience on the grizzly project, hydraulic motors are swapped for electrogel powered electric engines. Besides the "control" electrogel around the pilot, the rest power storage is concentrated mostly in a large reservoir in the back. Efforts are made to simplify recharge and to increase storage.
Finally, their are no direct viewports, instead the 'head' of the Suit possesses the end of a fiberscope, the output of which is displayed towards a helmet the pilot wears; granting them vision while not having a glaring weakspot in the chest pod's defenses.
Design: ME-MAS-62 'Grizzly Armor'(Normal) (4+2) = 6: Above Average
Thanks to our last attempt at this combined with the creation of (however mediocre it is) rechargeable Electrogel, this iteration of Grizzly Armor has been much easier to handle than before.
Using the skeleton created from the last endeavor, we replaced the hydraulic motors with Rechargeable Electrogel ones. Electrogel "conduits" leading from the motion suit in the torso's cockpit to their respective motors allow for direct translation of pilot movement to Grizzly movement. As the Grizzly isn't exactly similar to a human in its shape/movement and is generally more awkward to move, training pilots is tough. We've had a
lot of toppled Grizzlies in our testing, and now ensure that the proper methods of movement inside Grizzly Armor is covered in pilot training.
The pilot sees outside the suit via an optical fiber scope leading from points in the "head" of the Grizzly to the motion suit. It's not
amazing and the entire mech has to rotate in order to look around, but it allows for non-awful visibility without weakpoints. Grizzly pilots are instructed that they should never allow the enemy to approach from behind, as a running human
can keep up with the turning speed of the Grizzly and continuously damage it without repercussion. This limits the skirmishing effectiveness as the Grizzly - if left without support, we don't predict great effectiveness. But as long as it remains with other forces and infantry on the front lines, it should be fine.
The rest of the cockpit is, well, small. The pilot stands in their motion suit, where movement is translated directly into Grizzly movement. They're held suspended in-air in order to allow for a full range of movement. Even our trained pilots can experience trouble piloting the Grizzly, as the only method of feedback they have is the fiberscope and muffled sound. Pilots have to be
veeeerrry careful when moving if they don't want to trip on something and knock the entire suit down, and monitoring damage levels is very difficult as they can't easily appraise their own armor/hull.
The pilot's face isn't covered, and the view from the fiberscope is in front of them embedded in the wall of the cockpit. When they "turn", it feels like turning and the suit turns, but the actual pilot doesn't turn. A radio is embedded for communications. Heating and STABIL-ICE-based cooling are provided.
Conventional batteries line the back of the Grizzly. While Electrogel holds its own charge, this effectively serves as backup charge allowing the Grizzly to remain effective even when away from infrastructure. For a bit, at least.
Like Bear Armor, the Grizzly's Electrogel can last for 8 hours on a full charge. Its batteries provide enough backup energy for another 8 hours, but it has to spend time recharging from battery. We had some extra time in the project, so we improved rechargeable Electrogel to the point where it takes just as long to charge as the time it was used - 2 hours of usage means 2 hours of charging. Still
mildly annoying, but it's good enough that our generals won't have to ration Grizzlies on the battlefield to keep them charged.
The weapon modules were easy to implement. Pretty much every weapon we have can be mounted on one of its arms, including a Sarukh-based arm with the capacity for 6 ICE rockets. Future weapons with a vehicle version will likely be able to be easily fit onto the Grizzly.
In terms of armor, the Grizzly does great. We believe that a single shot from Aratam's battle tank would destroy the external Mangalloy easily, but the COMBAT plating stops it from doing
real damage. We expect that the majority of the COMBAT plating in roughly a meter area would melt. Integrated STABIL-ICE cooling doesn't do much to prevent this, but it does cool the damaged armor to regular levels quickly enough so that consequent shots aren't more damaging than usual. Another Hydra cannon shot in the same area would likely pierce the armor, but not devastatingly so; a second Hydra shot would likely end up embedding itself in the back layer of armor. This can pierce Electrogel connections, damage motors, or kill the pilot; enough to hurt combat effectiveness of the Grizzly, but the shot could very well miss anything important.
A
third Hydra cannon shell, however, in the same spot, would surely destroy the Grizzly from the kinetic energy. It'll likely leave behind a surprisingly intact wreck, as the remaining COMBAT plating often prevents the entire suit from being destroyed. But all the internals will be gone.
Their personal Ospreys' coilgun-assisted shots can do tiny bits of damage to the armor, though not by much. If a single Grizzly was swarmed by Aratamites, it
could be destroyed. But generally, we don't need to worry about infantry rifles unless there's a compromised section of COMBAT plating that can be exploited. Their flak tank could do notable damage to the armor, but aren't expected to be problems as they'll be focusing on infantry and can be destroyed before any real damage is done in most situations.
The Grizzly is
relatively slow -- slower than their tank (but faster than a person), at least -- and is a very big target, but it can very well tank hits. Pilots are warned to be aware of the suit staggering backwards or even falling over after being shot by a Hydra, but to otherwise attempt to use cover (though there's rarely Grizzly-sized cover in most places), agility, and first-strikes to their advantage. An ICE missile can still do wonders against a Hydra. Confrontations with enemy armor are not
guaranteed to go in our favor, and if their Hydras outnumber our Grizzlies in any particular battle (without external support), we can't expect a victory.
But in general, we expect a hefty armor advantage barring anything unexpected from Aratam. Just not an
ironclad advantage. The Grizzly may be an extremely impressive replacement for a main battle tank, but Aratam's tank isn't anything to laugh at.
The Grizzly, with COMBAT Plating included, costs
7 Ore and
3 Oil. The use of rechargeable Electrogel let us keep oil costs down juuust enough to make it
Expensive!
The greatly intimidating and awe-inspiring first suits of Grizzly Armor are greeted with great public enthusiasm as they walk through the streets of Mereth and off to war, where the ancient Aratam armor advantage shall finally be vanquished!
...we've also politely asked the government to
not immediately sell our mechs to the public this time. Here's hoping that they listen.
Transport Capacity: 3/3 (2/2 Oil, 1/1 Ore Imported)
Resources: 5 Ore,
3 OilWeapons- "Stalwart" Rifle: A semi-automatic rifle with mediocre accuracy at Long range and good accuracy at Medium (and useless accuracy further).
[Cheap] 1 Ore - "Heartstopper" Pistol: A 2-round semiautomatic pistol semi-accurate up to Short range. Has enormous stopping power. Pride of the Merethan army.
[Cheap] 1 Ore - UF-AC-41 Velociraptor: This autocannon is a revision of AC18, with several improvements. The gun is a little more tolerant of different ammo weights and the shells have been modified so that mixed ammo belts are possible. The use of more advanced materials has allowed some parts to become lighter, while a heavier bolt and stronger spring allows a rate of fire of 750 RPM, with a final gun weight of 48kg. In infantry use, it has noticeably more recoil, but this is less of a concern on vehicles.
[Cheap] 3 Ore
- AS-AC18: An advanced primer ignition autocannon, which ignites cartridge primers before the round is fully chambered. It fires the new, large, 20x100mm round, fed from a top-mounted 25 round C-shaped magazine with a powerful spring, usually armor piercing, about 600 times per minute. The weapon is quite large with a simple action but heavy barrel, weighing over 40 kilograms, and it requires being mounted to a carriage, foundation, or vehicle to fire with accuracy, although recoil is reduced by the nature of its action. It is dependent on a careful balance between the force of the shell and the force of the action, which means that different ammo types cannot be interchanged without recalibrating the gun. It has a terrifying ability to punch through armor and emplacements. Lighter materials have slightly decreased the weight from the previous 40kg.
[Cheap] 3 Ore
- UF-MRL-40 'SARUKH': The Sarukh is a multiple rocket launcher, which fires rockets one meter long to deliver 6kg warheads at a maximum range of 12000 meters. The rockets have impressive destructive power, compared to shells they do not need thick metal casings, so most of the weight of the rocket is either warhead or propellant. The rockets are launched electrically off of rails, and the rails are in a 4x2 array. The rockets can be fired all at once, but it takes about four minutes to reload the whole launcher, so the sustained rate of fire is not better than regular artillery. However, a rocket array is extremely light compared to a cannon, and can move very quickly, firing all at once and retreating before fire is returned from the enemy. Accuracy is poor compared to shells; to reliably hit a single target with a volley they should be used within 8km. Currently available as a truck trailer.
[Cheap] 1 Ore, 3 Oil
- ICE Rocket: A rocket for the Sarukh equipped with an ICE non-explosive warhead. Instant lethalities within 5m, very high fatalities within 10m, serious injuries (and occasional fatality) along with (usually temporary) vehicle non-operation to 50m. The cold dissipates quickly outdoors.
- ICE Thrower: A 20m-ranged pressurized ICE thrower that can rapidly cool an area in front of the operator to (eventually) lethal levels or outright kill/severely harm those directly hit by ICE. The ICE doesn't naturally react until roughly 10m out from the barrel, though it can hit other things in its way and react with whatever it hits. Prolonged use is discouraged, due to close proximity with ICE and ICE-affected areas being very dangerous even with the extensive insulation operators wear.
[Cheap] 2 Ore, 3 Oil - AS-RPG28 A: A rocket-propelled grenade, fired out of a launch tube. The grenade itself consists of a conical shape with a narrow tube of propellent out the back, and twisted fins in the middle of the tube. The launch tube is 3cm wide, a meter long and the rocket fits in up to the fins, and is just a metal tube with a handle. To ignite the propellant, soldiers remove a pin, on the rocket, which is first clipped by a short chain to a trigger on the handle. The tube itself and each grenade each weigh 3kg. It is accurate enough to hit a tank out to almost 100 meters, after which it drops quickly. Rockets are available with warheads based on each type of grenade, including a HEAT conical shaped charge.
[Cheap] 2 Ore, 1 Oil - ME-GVM-61 "Penguin": A 500 kg 33cm diameter 3.5m long black and white missile with long and stubby wings. Controlled remotely via an embedded television camera, and contains basic onboard transistor-based guidance allowing for a relatively straight course when jammed. Two missiles are carried in basic launcher trucks. Has a range of 50 km and a lethal radius of 50m; it can fit an ICE warhead or a HE warhead.
[Cheap] 3 Ore, 3 Oil - M3 Sorraia GPMG: A 7.62mm machine gun fed from a belt. 50-round belts can be strung together for extended fire or stored in a belt box attached to the Sorraia, which for practical purposes is similar to a magazine. It uses a recoil action, and is configured to fire around 800 rounds per minute, achieved with the help of a muzzle booster (which looks like a flared end on the barrel). Weighs 22 pounds. Comes with a bipod, or tripod for emplacements. It uses copper heat sinks, which are now shrouded. It has a changeable barrel, which is necessary for emplacement use. It is effective to about 800 yards when mounted.
[Cheap] 2 Ore
Armor- Standard Uniform: A plain blue featureless uniform. The blue's mild enough that it doesn't really stick out.
- ME-PA-59 'Bear Armour': "Infantry" armor based off of the now-obsolete Tiger suit. Boasts full body coverage, albeit with fairly frequent gaps in the joints; the breastplate/taces can block rifle bullets at nearly all ranges and most of the armor can stop pistol bullets at point black. It has insulating fur inner lining. Armor plating is semi-manually removed from the outside through a series of switches to enter/exit/perform maintenance, and the suit must have its Electrogel very routinely replaced to maintain full charge. Lasts 8 hours of consistent high-power use, but use is carefully rationed due to no tracking of the charge. Embarking/disembarking from the outside takes about 30 seconds, and disembarking without assistance takes a few minutes. It stands at [~7 ft/~2m] tall, and uses a smallish bulletproof glass visor for limited visibility. Pilots boast slightly increased speed and slightly decreased agility (but same strength) over regular unarmored individuals while in the Armour, twice the strength of average soldiers, and have their skin dyed blue from the Electrogel. Has mounts for a WALK-TALK and larger ICE Thrower tank, and a velcro strip in the helmet for maximum pilot comfort. Contains advanced shock/recoil-dampening capabilities in gauntlets.
Equipped with COMBAT Plating, adding a +1 Ore cost.
[Cheap] 4+1 Ore, 2 Oil - Bear Armour Shield: A
slab of metal shield roughly the size of a riot shield, made completely out of fairly thick metal, for wielding in one hand of a Bear trooper. Limits visibility and two-hand operations' effectiveness (such as reloading), but doesn't significantly restrict mobility and can be used with weapons such as the Stalwart easily.
- ME-MAS-62 'Grizzly Armor': A ~4m-tall mechanized combat suit, based vaguely on Bear Armor. Heavy COMBAT plating covering the chest - where the pilot resides in a suspended Electrogel motion suit looking at a fiberscope connected to the head - protects the pilot, and that COMBAT plating is covered by further Mangalloy plating to protect more effectively against small arms. Faster than most/all soldiers, but still relatively slow in vehicle standards. The lack of input to pilot besides (non-rotating) front-only visuals makes it easy to stumble/fall, as well. Can generally tank a single Hydra cannon shell with no internal damage -- just a moderately-sized patch of damaged COMBAT plating. A second shell in the same spot would pierce front armor and embed itself in the back, potentially causing internal damage (most notably severing of Electrogel conduits to some motors), and a third shell - also in the same spot - would destroy the suit. Has 8 hr of charge using Rechargeable Electrogel, and a backup battery providing another 8 hr of charge but that has to spend time charging the Electrogel while not moving. Can equip any vehicle-suited or heavy weapon held by Mereth, an upscaled Bear Shield, or a 6-rocket Sarukh pod in either(/both) of its two arm modules.
Equipped with COMBAT Plating, adding a +1 Ore cost.
[Expensive] 6+1 Ore, 3 Oil
Underground Vehicles- UT-60 Excavator: A tracked medium-sized heavily-modified tunnel boring machine, most notably using GOFAST-fuel. Can go down to Moderate and Shallow depths, moves at Very Slow speeds while underground and at Moderate speeds aboveground. Possesses limited (but notable) agility underground. Contains space for 6 soldiers and small amounts of equipment of the equivalent amount of cargo in the back, in addition to the 2 crew in its cockpit. Light armor. Equipped with the ME-SM-57 'Earth Ear' for basic subterranean navigation.
[Cheap] 3 Ore, 3 Oil; Provides 1 Ore.
- ME-CM-56 'Instant Roads': A very fast-acting sprayable concrete mixture very useful for reinforcing tunnels when sprayed by trailers hooked to a Burrower. Has to be re-applied occasionally to maintain integrity. Allows for use of Burrower tunnels for force movement and logistics.
Provides 1 TC.
Air Vehicles- ME-LRMA-60 "Blizzard": A two-engine jet "Long-Range Multi-Role-Aircraft" based off of the Lightning Streak that uses a 4 "X"-shaped wing configuration via the "Tereshkova Effect" for slightly increased aerodynamics, improved redundancy, and greatly improved coolness. Its two aT-J60gi ICE "freezing stovepipe" ramjet engines allows it to be a fair bit faster than the Lightning Streak. Has one large GOFAST tank and a small STABIL-ICE tank allowing for Long range. Equipped with 4x Velociraptor autocannons, 4 ICE missiles, and 1 tonne of bombs.
[Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil
Navy- UFN-CA-41 Catraphract: The Cataphract is a cruiser built to rival Cannala's ships. It is armed with 3x3 150mm gun turrets, each using a fully electrified loading system based on the moderately-performing Overcompensator, except that the 60kg shells are moved in one piece. Each gun can fire 8 times a minute. It has an armored citadel with 300mm of nickel-steel armor (Heavy), and a torpedo belt as well. The deck is also heavily armored, at 120mm (Light) to defend against plunging fire, plus an extra splinter deck. The turrets are similarly armored. There is a central director in the con tower which controls all the electrically-driven turrets, though there is no advanced firing calculator. Additionally there are three turrets with two bumblebees on each side of the ship, capable of firing on aircraft or ships, and miscellaneous autocannons wherever there is room. It is powered by oil-burning steam turbines, and there are a lot of them though with its considerable armor it only musters moderate speed.
[Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil
- ME-MV-61 "Makeshift": A modification of the Cataphract with shooty-bits and unnecessary "crew livability" components removed.
Provides 2 TC
- ME-DDG-61 "Chillwind": A Guided Missile Destroyer equipped with a 2x-Bumblebee turret, eight Velociraptors divided amongst both sides of the hulls, all slaved to a 150km aircraft/30km ships radar system. Uses a Mostly Vertical Launch system to house 40 Penguin missile launch tubes - 20 each side - angled 30 degrees down vertically. Crew and equipment requirements mean that only four missiles can be launched and guided at a time. Has a very thin metal hull covered by Pykrete and crisscrossing pipes of STABIL-ICE to keep the Pykrete layer cool and supposedly repair any damage, though it proves ineffective at damage repair and the STABIL-ICE often runs out quickly enough such that a Chillwind's first engagement is usually without any Pykrete armor still intact.
[Cheap] 3 Ore, 3 Oil
Other- GOFAST-Fuel: A special type of more energy-dense and stable fuel. Greatly increases fuel efficiency of anything it's in, doesn't require an oxidizer, and can rarely leak out of compromised containers.
Adds 1 Oil to cost. - MXETE: Discrete transistor digital mainframe computer - 2 MHz CPU, 4 Mb of magnetic drum long-term memory, and an operating memory of 1200*32 bits. Takes up an entire (very big) floor on the Design Division and creating another one is immensely impractical. Punch card input, with a tightly-packed light matrix called a "screen" for output.
- WALK-TALK: The Wireless Audio Local Kommunicator-Transistor Assistance Lowers Kost Radio. A small hand-held two-way transistor radio. Production is hampered by the ever-persistant Union of Electronics Workers, making it Complex.
[Expensive] 1 Ore, Complex - Electrogel: A very thick blue gel that creates and transmits electrical current corresponding to the amount of pressure applied to it. Comes with the "Electrogel Motor" - a very small motor with embedded Electrogel that works with power corresponding to Electrogel pressure. A patch of Electrogel can last roughly 8 hours when powering its corresponding motor nonstop at max power.
- Rechargeable Electrogel: A variant of Electrogel that can be charged with very precise pressure applied. As a general rule, the time needed to charge is 3x of how long it was used at max power usage.
- UF-SM-57 'Earth Ear': A set of small attachments to be put on all available sides of a subterranean vehicle. Vibration pings allow it to present a map of "where stuff is" and "where stuff isn't" via a very basic 3D projection in a small gas-filled glass cube. Only useful at recognizing the terrain and notable landmarks, and has a range of 10km in every direction from the device. An increased resolution and the ability to detect movement between scans allows it to detect the movement of reasonably large forces (allied or hostile) and flash relevant sectors red in the display.
- GASOLINE: The Great Acoustic/Seismic Oil Location Initiative and Extraction device, which fits onto an Earth Ear systems allowing for relative easy surveying of underground oil deposits. Merethan regulation forbids surveying underneath Mereth for alleged safety reasons, meaning oil found as a result of GASOLINE has to be imported using our transport capacity.
Provides 1 Oil (Import)
- ICE (Intense Chemical Endotherm): A chemical that very quickly reacts with the air to massively reduce heat in the surrounding area, often to the point where nearby things are frozen (ones in the epicenter frozen brittle), vehicles disabled or destroyed, and people killed.
- STABIL-ICE: A variant of ICE that relies on an added catalyst to only react when it's above a target temperature, specified during synthesization of the STABIL-ICE. Useful for ice cream and also maybe cooling of machinery and the like. Tends to slowly decay over time in storage, making it unsuitable for anything that can't expect routine maintenance.
- C.O.M.B.A.T. Plating: Composite armor plating using a thin manganese layer and a ceramic layer sandwiching a Tungsten-Bronze/Molybdenum-Bronze layer arranged to, in layman's terms, convert kinetic and electric energy into heat. The outer layers easily melt when tanking particularly impactful hits such as coilgun shots and Lvl3 Tesla blasts, but prevent death or (usually) injury in the process.
Adds +1 Ore to cost.
Infrastructure- Division of Unusual Chemistry: A fully funded department & lab under the Design Division specializing in more unusual chemistry.
- M.A.G.M.A.: A giant borehole made and maintained using Excavators, Bear Armour, Earth Ears, and many more instances of our tech. Uses ad-hoc STABIL-ICE cooling systems fitted onto Bear Armour and excavators to maintain suitable temperatures. The deepest borehole in the world, and brings up notable amounts of ore from existing land.
Provides +1 Ore
- Embassy "Vast Underground Forenian Embassy": An extensive and mildly luxurious underground Forenian embassy dug underneath around the center of Mereth using improvements in excavation technology designed 100% solely for civilian use and definitely nothing else.
Author
Topic: Mad Arms Race - Mereth Design Division (Fall 1965 - Final Design Phase) (Read 83547 times)