Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Chiefwaffles]

CHEAPRADIO: The "Communicator: Highly Encrypted Audio, Potentially Reusable As Distant Interface Option" is, as the name clearly suggests, a cheap radio. A decent chunk of design time will be spent negotiating with the Union of Electronics Workers, forcing them to accept more reasonable wages, and allow for modernisation of production equipment. The rest of our time will be spent updating the components used in the WALK-TALK, making it smaller, adding encryption, and possibly increasing the range slightly. Integration into Bear Armour is important as well.
Of lesser concern, but worth looking at if we have the time, is ensuring that the CHEAPRADIO technology can be scaled up to transmit more data... like, CAT levels of data. The basic radio needn't be capable of it, but it would be nice if we could combine a bunch of them to allow for some... interesting options in the future.

Revision: CHEAPRADIO
(Easy) (1+3)+1 = 5: Average

In other news today, the government has come to an agreement with leaders of the Merethan Union of Electronics Workers. The exact details are unclear, but workers have agreed to lower wages and "more efficient" benefits for unknown compensation.

Look, the warehouse of unused prototype Drop Bear suits wasn't going to empty itself, okay? Plus we made them all sign non-disclosure agreements and agreements to not come after us when if the suits fail mid-flight. But instead of focusing on the fact that we just gave every worker that made our radios jet suits, we should focus on the fact that we have cheap radios now. About damn time. Command was getting tired of yelling really loudly.

Also included are some other modernizations. The WALK-TALK is a bit smaller, and we included very rudimentary encryption hardware so the Necrostate will actually have to provide some semblance of work for its intelligence if they want to go for that route. Integrating it into Bear Armor is trivial.

We couldn't do anything regarding the proposal to scale up bandwidth, but we did run a precursory investigation into that possibility. The CAT runs a lot of data. A lot. Like, a ton. Most of it probably isn't needed ultimately for the basic commands and controls we have now, but even if we theoretically managed to send/receive only the essential data, it's still a lot. So we'd need rather powerful radios for that. Then there are other faults with radios and CAT data, such as the lack of 100% reliability. The level of precision required for this data is, like the bandwidth, very high. A few mistakes in sending/receiving and we can potentially have, say, a Grizzly trying to bend its knee backwards. (By the way, don't try to test it, we did and had, uh, casualties.)

Spoiler: Designs (click to show/hide)

Transport Capacity: 2/3 (2/2 Oil, 0/0 Ore Imported)
Resources: 4 Ore, 3 Oil, 1 Magmatite

Weapons

• ME-CLAW-63: A Magmagel-using laser gun. Bit unwieldy for regular soldiers, but easy to carry (and can be duel-wielded) by Bear soldiers. Uses Magmagel canisters inserted into the barrel to fire. Has a beam mode and pulse mode, with the beam capable of cutting unarmored people in half. Can easily melt through current Aratamite infantry armor, though not instantly. Damage is precise; it can do a lot of damage in very small areas -- it's best used against vital organs. Beam mode, when concentrated on the exact same spot of a Tank/heavy armor for a few seconds, can melt through the armor and damage whatever's directly behind it. Has a(n unused) port to pump in/out Magmagel for continuous use. Terrific accuracy at any range, though damage scales with distance (making it Long-ranged). Comes with 3x scope for sniping.
  [Expensive] 2 Ore, 1 Oil, 2 Magmatite
• "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
• ME-MO-62 "Nameless Death": A larger-than-normal mortar that uses rocket-propelled ammunition to give it a more than respectable range, with the ability for ICE or HE warheads. Its advantage lies in its versatility and ease-of-use: it can be mounted on Bear Armor's rear mount, deployed on the ground, and an automatic version exists for mounting on the Grizzly. Though the infantry version is somewhat hard to use without Bear Armor. Bear Troopers can fire their rear-mounted mortar at any time, without deployment, using a button on the suit's arm, though they have to aim through their posture, and the mortar has to be manually reloaded by another person. Grizzly mech versions are fired via the CAT interface, but are harder to aim and the CAT interface can't do anything other than "fire".
  [Cheap] 2 Ore
• ME-AEM-63 'Shrike': A 100kg missile with a 15kg ICE/HE warhead. Its associated "Birdbrain" computing pod allows for real-time target detection/analyzing, giving pilots a simple holographic reticule overlay in the cockpit and allowing effective tracking of any kind of target. Its warhead can be adjusted in real time by the computer for optimum damage against the selected target (air-bursting,  shaped charge, etc.) and it has high-res sensors with a relatively-thin viewing angle to find targets. On-board missile computer is simple and enacts out orders given by Birdbrain pre-launch, but can wirelessly receive new orders/communicate intel. Not specifically long-range.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 2 Oil

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. Lasts 8 hours of consistent high-power use, and charge is monitored by a dial in the helmet. 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. Fit with Magmagel, and equipped with a charging port that can finish charging in one minute.
  [Cheap] 4 Ore, 2 Oil, 1 Magmatite
• Bear Armour Shield: A slab of metal shield roughly the size of a riot shield, made out of thick metal, for wielding in one hand. Limits visibility and two-hand operations' effectiveness (like reloading), but doesn't restrict mobility and can be used with one-hand weapons.
• "Drop Bear" Armor: A suit of Bear Armor with two relatively large fuel tanks attached to the back, with nozzles places around the suit. Can launch a Bear Trooper high into the air 50 meters forward, where they land with a noticeable (albeit minor) shockwave and no harm to themselves. Single-use, and prohibits use of heavy weaponry and especially the ICE Thrower. Equipped with COMBAT plating.
  Equipped with COMBAT Plating.
  [Expensive] 4+1 Ore, 3+1 Oil, 1 Magmatite
• COMBAT Plating Bear Armour: Bear Armour equipped with COMBAT Plating.
  [Expensive] 4+1 Ore, 2 Oil, 1 Magmatite
• ME-MAS-62 'Grizzly Armor' v2: A ~4m-tall mechanized combat suit, based vaguely on Bear Armor. Heavy COMBAT plating covering the chest - where the pilot resides nearly integrated in the armor connected via a Cerebral Action Translator 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. Pilot has basic sense of "touch" from the suit, allowing for a good degree of coordination. 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. Fit with Magmagel, and a charging port that allows charging in five minutes. Charge monitored by dials in the cockpit.
  Equipped with COMBAT Plating, adding a +1 Ore cost.
  [Very Expensive] 6+1 Ore, 3 Oil, 1 Magmatite

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 a single 15° rudimentary CLAW turret integrated with Birdbrain (and a small amount of Magmagel "ammo"), and 8 Shrike missiles.
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil, 1 Magmatite
• ME-EAP-63 "Skyranger": A two-multimodal-propulsion-unit suborbital transport craft. With four wings. It can propel itself out of the atmosphere and "fall" towards its destination at extremely fast speeds, making it a practical fireball (the heat of which is mostly countered through ICE circulation cooling). It can hold a full Bear squad or the equivalent weight in cargo/personnel, and using its suborbital travel method it can arrive anywhere on the continent in ~30 minutes. Its landing is extremely obvious and it requires heavy maintenance, and unless handling very light loads it has to take the long way back home, not using suborbital travel. Uses Magmagel-powered fans mostly in the atmosphere, and Magmatite-GOFAST Rockets/Ramjets at higher speeds and to get sufficient suborbital velocity. Has a CLAW hardpoint, but this hardpoint cannot be used if suborbital travel is expected.
  [Very Expensive] 6 Ore, 2 Oil, 3 Magmatite

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. Each gun can fire 8 times a minute. It has an armored citadel with 300mm of nickel-steel armor (Heavy), and a torpedo belt. The deck is heavily armored, at 120mm (Light) to defend against plunging fire, plus an extra splinter deck. The turrets are similarly armored. Additionally there are three turrets with two bumblebees on each side of the ship, capable of firing on aircraft or ships. It is powered by oil-burning steam turbines yielding a 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.
• 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.
  [Cheap] 1 Ore
• 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.
  • Magmagel: Electrogel enhanced with specially-ground Magmatite that allows very-fast charging.
• UF-SM-57 'Earth Ear' Mk. IV: A set of small attachments to be put on all available sides of a subterranean vehicle. The use of precise vibrations sent through the earth and analyzed by an onboard computer allow for identifying of earth and entities in a 20km area. A basic Cube-contained 3D-projected interface in red and blue shows the layout of the land and distinguishes between earth, buildings, vehicles, and infantry (all allied and enemy). Magnetic disks store gathered data to also be fed back to the ORACLE.
  
  • 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: 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.
• Cerebral Action Translator A system wherein a series of jacks are implanted into the upper spine and lower brain -- roughly the neck and lower half of the back head, from the outside -- to allow for communication between computers/machinery and the human brain. Use of Electrogel as very-primitive "neurons" allows a bridge between the Electrogel and actual neuron growths, providing a channel to receive input from the neural system and a channel to send information to the neural system. It has low bandwidth, meaning it can't do a  huge number of things at once, but what it does do, it does nearly seamlessly.

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
• ORACLE-A: A microprocessor-based STABIL-ICE-cooled supercomputer with >100 MB of RAM and >1,000 MB of storage space using magnetic disks, and relatively blazing fast speeds using a generally advanced CPU with other cores handling peripheral tasks. Input is primarily via keyboards, and output is via vector-drawn screen graphics. When given adequate intelligence regarding known enemy activity in an area, the ORACLE-A can compile a prediction of future enemy activity over a set time period up to a week. However, we must have really good intelligence in an area for the best predictions, and the ORACLE-A can only handle a relatively few areas at a time (that must be chosen in advance by humans) due to processing power limitations. Despite this, its predictions are (when given adequate intelligence) very effective.

• 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.

The Combat Phase of Fall 1963 has begun. Last chance to enter contest submissions! (Contest summary is "media describing your domestic enemy"; see last Combat Report for more)

[dgr11897]

Mk1 Sea-ranger
The sea ranger is a heavily armed fast attack hovercraft. Designed with the goal of being able to attack enemy landers and bring some semblance of an actual conflict back to the sea. The sea ranger is equipped with a shrike turret and associated birdbrain array, allowing it to hit just about anything. The craft itself is about the size of an excavator, and utilizes the electric fan system from the skyranger for propulsion. Making it one heck of a fast bugger. For close in defense it is equipped with a single turreted autocannon, and mostly relies on its speed to survive on the battlefield.

[m1895]

PTW

[Madman198237]

ME-GWM-6X 'Firedrake'
Since the invention of the Gatling gun, people everywhere have wondered: "What would happen if you rechambered this for a long 20mm cartridge, motorized the turning system, and added a hideously powerful incendiary and a chemical capable of freezing things? AND THEN, what if you stuck it onto a 3-meter-plus tall metal monstrosity and told it to go kill things?" OK, maybe they haven't actually wondered EXACTLY that, but still.

The Firedrake is a brand-new integrated weapons system for all our forces. Specifically, it is a 20mm 6-barrelled rotary autocannon connected via armature to a box full of ammunition and a Birdbrain-type single gun targeting computer, capable of picking out things that don't have a friendly IFF and asking the user if they would like those things to stop existing. Aircraft, tanks, infantry platoons, the Birdbrain will find them all, and then allow the user to lovingly press a firing button to dispose of those things. It can be mounted on anything that has space, including empty space on the ground, as a backpack on a Grizzly (the gun then fires over the Grizzly's shoulder. The box is "small" enough that two can be mounted on a Grizzly's back, one over each shoulder), or on Blizzards.

The firerate alone is enough to chew through tank armor given enough time, but the largest innovation is in the projectiles. In them is what the DUC described as "a sufficient amount" of an incredibly volatile mixture of the nastiest chemicals the DUCs have ever gotten their hands on, a few ounces of which can burn through a tank and the concrete floor beneath it. We're not actually sure what's in there because the DUC-to-Sane People Liason had a fatal heart attack in the middle of the list. We think it included "chlorine trifluoride". And frankly, we don't want to know. We've decided to call this new horror FIRE: Fluoride Incredibly Reactive Exothermic, in honor of the way it burns everything.

As an added bonus, FIRE can be used in any weapons that use warheads (Sarukh, autocannon, Grizzly cannon, naval guns, bombs and Shrikes), because it's just another type of warhead. But more deadly, because DUC was bored since we've given them so little to do. Or so they said...

I should probably stop thinking about this Arms Race and go finish my final project. But I just started wondering: What happens if you were to take an autocannon, mix it with a super incendiary and a Birdbrain pod, then start sticking it on every vehicle we have?

Includes a box o' bullets with a chopped-down Birdbrain for just the one gun which is mounted on an armature capable of pointing it at pretty much anything the Birdbrain can spot. Also FIRE. Should be capable of anything from air defense to antitank work to just general murdering. Since it will also fit on Blizzards, it should improve our air forces' killing ability too.

Yes I should probably not even bother since we don't know when Chief's going to write the next turn, but I just had to.

[NUKE9.13]

Did you forget about CLAW?

[Madman198237]

Not really, why do you ask?

[m1895]

(Is this what you were going for nuke? Sorry if the writing’s a bit too rough.)

Bear CLAW

The standard CLAW is fine for what it is, but it could be so much more. By including a modified Birdbrain system with IFF, a rechargogel motorized mounting and a magmagel tank. We are able to use the bear CLAW as an anti-ordinance, anti-armor, and anti-personnel system.

As well as the previous alterations we would like to add a new fire mode to the CLAW. While boring a hole through an enemy is useful, by increasing the energy of a pulse it turns whatever surface is struck into plasma, causing explosive expansion.

The bear CLAW will be available in three mountings, a standalone quadrupedal mounting, on a bear armored troopers shoulder with the magmagel tank in place of an ICE thrower tank, or upsized on a grizzly’s shoulders. If possible we should alter the magmagel mix to minimize magmatite usage while still retaining the same effectiveness as current magmagel.
( if we do something like this we should revise GASOLINE to find magmatite.)

[Chiefwaffles]

Combat Phase: Winter 1963

We're pretty lucky that most of our population lives where they cannot see the sky or experience weather. Those who do live above-ground however aren't too happy with the fact that the weather is distinctly owned by Aratam now. But the Skyranger is a huge success, and if the ORACLE-A had feelings chances are it'd say the same thing.

Spoiler: Designs (click to show/hide)

Transport Capacity: 2/3 (2/2 Oil, 0/0 Ore Imported)
Resources: 4 Ore, 3 Oil, 1 Magmatite

Weapons

• ME-CLAW-63: A Magmagel-using laser gun. Bit unwieldy for regular soldiers, but easy to carry (and can be duel-wielded) by Bear soldiers. Uses Magmagel canisters inserted into the barrel to fire. Has a beam mode and pulse mode, with the beam capable of cutting unarmored people in half. Can easily melt through current Aratamite infantry armor, though not instantly. Damage is precise; it can do a lot of damage in very small areas -- it's best used against vital organs. Beam mode, when concentrated on the exact same spot of a Tank/heavy armor for a few seconds, can melt through the armor and damage whatever's directly behind it. Has a(n unused) port to pump in/out Magmagel for continuous use. Terrific accuracy at any range, though damage scales with distance (making it Long-ranged). Comes with 3x scope for sniping.
  [Expensive] 2 Ore, 1 Oil, 2 Magmatite
• "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
• ME-MO-62 "Nameless Death": A larger-than-normal mortar that uses rocket-propelled ammunition to give it a more than respectable range, with the ability for ICE or HE warheads. Its advantage lies in its versatility and ease-of-use: it can be mounted on Bear Armor's rear mount, deployed on the ground, and an automatic version exists for mounting on the Grizzly. Though the infantry version is somewhat hard to use without Bear Armor. Bear Troopers can fire their rear-mounted mortar at any time, without deployment, using a button on the suit's arm, though they have to aim through their posture, and the mortar has to be manually reloaded by another person. Grizzly mech versions are fired via the CAT interface, but are harder to aim and the CAT interface can't do anything other than "fire".
  [Cheap] 2 Ore
• ME-AEM-63 'Shrike': A 100kg missile with a 15kg ICE/HE warhead. Its associated "Birdbrain" computing pod allows for real-time target detection/analyzing, giving pilots a simple holographic reticule overlay in the cockpit and allowing effective tracking of any kind of target. Its warhead can be adjusted in real time by the computer for optimum damage against the selected target (air-bursting,  shaped charge, etc.) and it has high-res sensors with a relatively-thin viewing angle to find targets. On-board missile computer is simple and enacts out orders given by Birdbrain pre-launch, but can wirelessly receive new orders/communicate intel. Not specifically long-range.
  [Cheap] 2 Ore, 2 Oil

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. Lasts 8 hours of consistent high-power use, and charge is monitored by a dial in the helmet. 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. Fit with Magmagel, and equipped with a charging port that can finish charging in one minute.
  [Cheap] 4 Ore, 2 Oil, 1 Magmatite
• Bear Armour Shield: A slab of metal shield roughly the size of a riot shield, made out of thick metal, for wielding in one hand. Limits visibility and two-hand operations' effectiveness (like reloading), but doesn't restrict mobility and can be used with one-hand weapons.
• "Drop Bear" Armor: A suit of Bear Armor with two relatively large fuel tanks attached to the back, with nozzles places around the suit. Can launch a Bear Trooper high into the air 50 meters forward, where they land with a noticeable (albeit minor) shockwave and no harm to themselves. Single-use, and prohibits use of heavy weaponry and especially the ICE Thrower. Equipped with COMBAT plating.
  Equipped with COMBAT Plating.
  [Expensive] 4+1 Ore, 3+1 Oil, 1 Magmatite
• COMBAT Plating Bear Armour: Bear Armour equipped with COMBAT Plating.
  [Expensive] 4+1 Ore, 2 Oil, 1 Magmatite
• ME-MAS-62 'Grizzly Armor' v2: A ~4m-tall mechanized combat suit, based vaguely on Bear Armor. Heavy COMBAT plating covering the chest - where the pilot resides nearly integrated in the armor connected via a Cerebral Action Translator 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. Pilot has basic sense of "touch" from the suit, allowing for a good degree of coordination. 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. Fit with Magmagel, and a charging port that allows charging in five minutes. Charge monitored by dials in the cockpit.
  Equipped with COMBAT Plating, adding a +1 Ore cost.
  [Very Expensive] 6+1 Ore, 3 Oil, 1 Magmatite

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 a single 15° rudimentary CLAW turret integrated with Birdbrain (and a small amount of Magmagel "ammo"), and 8 Shrike missiles.
  [Expensive] 5 Ore, 4 Oil, 1 Magmatite
• ME-EAP-63 "Skyranger": A two-multimodal-propulsion-unit suborbital transport craft. With four wings. It can propel itself out of the atmosphere and "fall" towards its destination at extremely fast speeds, making it a practical fireball (the heat of which is mostly countered through ICE circulation cooling). It can hold a full Bear squad or the equivalent weight in cargo/personnel, and using its suborbital travel method it can arrive anywhere on the continent in ~30 minutes. Its landing is extremely obvious and it requires heavy maintenance, and unless handling very light loads it has to take the long way back home, not using suborbital travel. Uses Magmagel-powered fans mostly in the atmosphere, and Magmatite-GOFAST Rockets/Ramjets at higher speeds and to get sufficient suborbital velocity. Has a CLAW hardpoint, but this hardpoint cannot be used if suborbital travel is expected.
  [Very Expensive] 6 Ore, 2 Oil, 3 Magmatite

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. Each gun can fire 8 times a minute. It has an armored citadel with 300mm of nickel-steel armor (Heavy), and a torpedo belt. The deck is heavily armored, at 120mm (Light) to defend against plunging fire, plus an extra splinter deck. The turrets are similarly armored. Additionally there are three turrets with two bumblebees on each side of the ship, capable of firing on aircraft or ships. It is powered by oil-burning steam turbines yielding a 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.
• 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.
  [Cheap] 1 Ore
• 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.
  • Magmagel: Electrogel enhanced with specially-ground Magmatite that allows very-fast charging.
• UF-SM-57 'Earth Ear' Mk. IV: A set of small attachments to be put on all available sides of a subterranean vehicle. The use of precise vibrations sent through the earth and analyzed by an onboard computer allow for identifying of earth and entities in a 20km area. A basic Cube-contained 3D-projected interface in red and blue shows the layout of the land and distinguishes between earth, buildings, vehicles, and infantry (all allied and enemy). Magnetic disks store gathered data to also be fed back to the ORACLE.
  
  • 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: 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.
• Cerebral Action Translator A system wherein a series of jacks are implanted into the upper spine and lower brain -- roughly the neck and lower half of the back head, from the outside -- to allow for communication between computers/machinery and the human brain. Use of Electrogel as very-primitive "neurons" allows a bridge between the Electrogel and actual neuron growths, providing a channel to receive input from the neural system and a channel to send information to the neural system. It has low bandwidth, meaning it can't do a  huge number of things at once, but what it does do, it does nearly seamlessly.

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
• ORACLE-A: A microprocessor-based STABIL-ICE-cooled supercomputer with >100 MB of RAM and >1,000 MB of storage space using magnetic disks, and relatively blazing fast speeds using a generally advanced CPU with other cores handling peripheral tasks. Input is primarily via keyboards, and output is via vector-drawn screen graphics. When given adequate intelligence regarding known enemy activity in an area, the ORACLE-A can compile a prediction of future enemy activity over a set time period up to a week. However, we must have really good intelligence in an area for the best predictions, and the ORACLE-A can only handle a relatively few areas at a time (that must be chosen in advance by humans) due to processing power limitations. Despite this, its predictions are (when given adequate intelligence) very effective.

• 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.

The Design Phase of Winter 1963 has begun.

[NUKE9.13]

So, Madman's Hellborer is now canon. On the one hand, this is bad, as it makes expanding MAGMA much harder. On the other, it means we can do this:

PURE IRON:
You may have heard about the cessation of MAGMA expansion. There is, of course, an official excuse- something about cost concerns- but the real, classified, reason are the beings colloquially known as Hellborers. Well, we heard about the Hellborer corpse being held in a maximum-security warehouse, and went to check it out, along with some chemists from the DUC. Though almost pulverised by bullets and explosions, the remains were still fascinating. The structure of these beings resembles nothing on Earth (as in, nothing on the surface). We were especially interested in its natural armour and "iron" skeleton, so we had the DUC run some tests on samples extracted- with great difficulty, given the extreme hardness- from the beast.

"Moving on, test 012, elemental analysis of sample 003, skeletal matter. Sample 003 was found to consist of entirely of iron isotopes, with no other elements present."
"I'm sorry, I think I misheard. Did you say no other elements?"
"Yes, that is correct."
"That's insane. Earlier you said tests revealed sample 003 to be ten times stronger than steel!"
"This is also correct."
"But... everyone knows alloys are stronger!"
"Sir, I am an Unusual Chemist. I do not believe in what everyone knows. And I'm telling you, sample 003 is pure iron."
"No alloys? Solid iron?"
"Correct. Although, I should mention that the ratio of Fe-60 was unusually high, at almost 6%."
"Remind me, how common is Fe-60 in nature?"
"Fe-60 has a half-life of 2.6 million years, only occurs in supernovae, and is found only in trace amounts in most iron deposits. Most Fe-60 on earth is believed to have arrived here as stellar dust after a nearby supernova roughly 2 million years ago. Samples of iron ore from the lower levels of MAGMA show increased levels compared to surface deposits, however, for which there is no explanation."

Naturally, we ordered immediate further study into Fe-60's properties. The results were astounding. Fe-60 on an atomic and molecular level behaves like regular iron. However, on a macro scale, things get Unusual. A mere 1% of Fe-60 makes iron almost twice as strong as regular steel. Increasing it to 6% results in an eightfold increase. 100% Fe-60 has, so far, proven impossible to test the effective strength of, as it has broken every piece of testing equipment we have.
(Astute observers may note that the Hellborer skeleton contained 6% Fe-60 and was ten times stronger than regular steel, as opposed to the eight times we found in testing. It is not known how this extra strength is gained; the DUC has requested access to a living specimen in order to observe the growth process in action, which MAGMA overseers have absolutely refused to consider. Research is ongoing, but for now, we'll have to settle for our slightly weaker Fe-60.)
Furthermore, Fe-60 seems to hate electrical currents. Even small amounts significantly reduce the iron's natural conductivity, to the point where 10% Fe-60 can be used as insulation.
Attempting to alloy iron containing significant amounts of Fe-60 somehow nullifies the extra strength- it returns to behaving like regular iron. Indeed, all attempts to add significant impurities to the iron have resulted in this- anything below 99.98% iron becomes substantially weaker. So, pure iron it is.
Or rather, PURE IRON- Pilfered Underground Rock Eater's Intensely Robust Organic Negator. The name merely indicates where the inspiration came from; we're not actually planning on harvesting Hellborer skeletons. No, the iron deposits found above Hellborer territory contain sufficient levels of Fe-60 for us to produce PURE IRON plating that is as strong as- if not stronger than- COMBAT plating, all at a significantly reduced cost. The metallurgical experience gained creating COMBAT plating will not go to waste, as finding a way to reliably extract Fe-60 and smelt it without adding impurities will require skills not often employed elsewhere.
The exact percentage of Fe-60 in PURE IRON plating may be altered, depending on cost concerns. Our goal is to be able to replace all our armour with PURE IRON containing enough Fe-60 to be effectively as strong as COMBAT plating, but should Fe-60 prove easier to extract than anticipated, stronger PURE IRON may be issued. Should Fe-60 prove harder to extract than anticipated, COMBAT plating may continue to be used on certain units, whilst those who can't afford it are equipped with PURE IRON.


E: Fallacy pointed out that COMBAT plating is also, crucially, resistant to electrical attacks. I'm considering adding electrical resistance to PURE IRON, but that might be pushing it. I mean, the main reason I even like this idea is for the meme value.

E2: Screw it, added a line about Fe-60 reducing conductivity. Chiefwaffles has indicated that he likes PURE IRON, and has said it'd auto-roll an 8 if I can make a backronym for NO ALLOYS.

[FallacyofUrist]

Artificial Designer of Merethian InterNals:
We've had a bit of a problem with certain expensive vehicles of ours. The Grizzly, the Skyranger, the Blizzard. The units that make the most difference in our war are incredibly expensive. What would the war be like if they were cheaper, we wondered? We thought of several ways to cheapen them, from improved materials, or increased resource gathering, to throwing more ICE Cream at our engineers. Then someone hit upon a bright idea: Why not adapt ORACLE-A's optimization abilities to designs and factories? ADMIN, or the Artificial Designer of Merethian InterNals, is our latest artificial intelligence project.

ADMIN is a learning computer, much like ORACLE-A, but with a different purpose: Optimization of design. Weapon design, vehicle design, factory design. Like ORACLE-A, ADMIN learns from how things work, and suggests improvements. And those improvements lead to efficiency, and less wasted resources. We intend to use ADMIN to cheapen our Grizzly, Blizzard, Skyranger, in order of priority. Another thing we're hoping to improve with ADMIN is our COMBAT plating, using its artificial intelligence analysis capabilities to make it more efficient, but cheaper Grizzlies are our first priority.

To improve our manufacturing even further, we've created improved machines designed to be controlled by ADMIN. Robotic "arms", for example, that can perform assembly at great speed and efficiency. And of course all the other machines that go in a factory, placed under ADMIN's direct, hyper-efficient, control.

There are some worries that this pursuit of efficiency will alienate workers. Do not worry. All workers who lose jobs thanks to ADMIN will be offered free places in the Merethian army, possibly even as combat engineers! In this way they can continue to show patriotic fervor for our country and our war effort.

[Madman198237]

ME-GWM-61 'Firedrake'
Since the invention of the Gatling gun, people everywhere have wondered: "What would happen if you rechambered this for a long 20mm cartridge, motorized the turning system, and added a hideously powerful incendiary and a chemical capable of freezing things? AND THEN, what if you stuck it onto a 3-meter-plus tall metal monstrosity and told it to go kill things?" OK, maybe they haven't actually wondered EXACTLY that, but still.

The Firedrake is a brand-new integrated weapons system for all our forces. Specifically, it is a 20mm 6-barrelled rotary autocannon connected via armature to a box full of ammunition and a Birdbrain-type single gun targeting computer, capable of picking out things that don't have a friendly IFF and asking the user if they would like those things to stop existing. Aircraft, tanks, infantry platoons, the Birdbrain will find them all, and then allow the user to lovingly press a firing button to dispose of those things. It can be mounted on anything that has space, including empty space on the ground, as a backpack on a Grizzly (the gun then fires over the Grizzly's shoulder. The box is "small" enough that two can be mounted on a Grizzly's back, one over each shoulder), or on Blizzards.

The firerate alone is enough to chew through tank armor given enough time, but the largest innovation is in the projectiles. In them is what the DUC described as "a sufficient amount" of an incredibly volatile mixture of the nastiest chemicals the DUCs have ever gotten their hands on, a few ounces of which can burn through a tank and the concrete floor beneath it. We're not actually sure what's in there because the DUC-to-Sane People Liason had a fatal heart attack in the middle of the list. We think it included "chlorine trifluoride". And frankly, we don't want to know. We've decided to call this new horror FIRE: Fluoride Incredibly Reactive Exothermic, in honor of the way it burns everything.

As an added bonus, FIRE can be used in any weapons that use warheads (Sarukh, autocannon, Grizzly cannon, naval guns, bombs and Shrikes), because it's just another type of warhead. But more deadly, because DUC was bored since we've given them so little to do. Or so they said...

Well, it gets rid of tanks and helps our aircraft perform better strafing runs. It also functions well now, whereas we need more resources to make truly useable CLAW weaponry for aircraft.

ME-PLC-61 TALON Tank Application of Laser OrdiNance
Based on the CLAW, the TALON laser system is basically a scaled-up version capable of delivering millisecond pulses of laser energy, enough that the target's surface explodes into plasma, short enough that the resulting cloud doesn't waste (too much) of the pulse's energy. The intent is to make a Grizzly armature, Bear Trooper-moved emplacement [tripod with a laser cannon on top, aimed, fired, and moved around by Bear Troopers], or Blizzard mounting that is capable of delivering a single devastating pulse to flash large amounts of armor or flesh into an expanding cloud of deadly-hot plasma. It uses the minimum amount of Magmagel for this purpose, and thus has a very low rate of fire for a laser weapon.

If we cheapen Grizzlies in the revision, this gives them an unfailingly accurate way to destroy pretty much anything, in really cool fashion.

I'd also propose Brainwave again, if we can figure out a way to cheapen Grizzlies at least in the revision.

[NUKE9.13]

Our number one priority this turn is getting our Grizzlies to Expensive. We do that, our fortunes should improve considerably. PURE IRON is designed to do this, by replacing the COMBAT plating (which costs ore). ADMIN could also work, though it may be harder (and less fun). I really don't think better weapons are what we need right now- we can kill them just fine, we just need the numbers.

Anyway, there's still plenty of time for discussion, but just FYI, my vote is for PURE IRON. NO ALLOYS!*

[dgr11897]

Project ICE-STORM
Incredible Chemical Endotherm, Storms of Thunder Obliteration Method.
This project aims to disrupt our foes control of the weather by reducing atmospheric humidity and thus destroying cloudcover before it can be used. How does it do this? By launching missiles that distribute ICE canisters with parachutes and other methods of staying aloft inside the clouds of a thunderstorm, then, these canisters pull the water out of the nearby air by causing it to freeze around the canister, creating large chunks of ice that capture the water and dust particles making the enemy lightning storms possible. These large chunks of ice then fall to the ground and impact the battlefield at high velocity, causing a localized hailstorm of massive ICE chunks. This also works on normal clouds, allowing it to be used as a method of hitting foes over a wide area.

(Because I couldn't resist the horribly forced acronym and disrupting their storms turns this war in our favor.)

[Madman198237]

Our number one priority this turn is getting our Grizzlies to Expensive. We do that, our fortunes should improve considerably. PURE IRON is designed to do this, by replacing the COMBAT plating (which costs ore). ADMIN could also work, though it may be harder (and less fun). I really don't think better weapons are what we need right now- we can kill them just fine, we just need the numbers.

Anyway, there's still plenty of time for discussion, but just FYI, my vote is for PURE IRON. NO ALLOYS!*

The thing about PURE IRON is that it tries to remove COMBAT plating, which is a really cool gimmick that is very useful. I'd rather not just go the route of replacing it with generic wonder material #240485 "super strong version of iron". The acronym is appropriately funny (and painful to read), the joke is pretty good, but still, it does replace a cool gimmick with a less cool one, even if I do appreciate that Hellborers may actually have some use. Maybe instead make it so that the joke is that it IS used in a COMBAT plating alloy/combination/whatever we call the thing that COMBAT plating does---making it more effective in exchange for costing Hellborer corpses instead of regular Ore.


Also, yes, we'd like to get Grizzlies to Expensive, but that's not the only way we have of turning this war in our favor. Improving all our units (hello, Brainwave) to be simply better, making some sort of ultra-lightweight bomber to follow the Blizzards into combat zones and just drop dozens of guided missiles, or making weapons for Grizzlies and Bear Troopers to be better at AT warfare, etc, all of them would likely help us out. Focusing the mountains this turn and winning them would ALSO cheapen Grizzlies if we can hold them.

[FallacyofUrist]

You know what would get Grizzlies, and possibly COMBAT, to Expensive? ADMIN. For good measure, it would improve our computing tech, which would be wonderful for a lot of future advances, such as autonomous drones.