Revision: ME-LDT-64 'Ravenmind Area Interdiction Laser System' (RAILS)(Very Hard) (3+1)-2 = 2: Utter Failure
It turns out making an autonomous networking deployable swarming laser turret packed with sensors and with vastly upgraded target recognition all in a package smaller than even a single one of the existing components it's based off of in a revision is not the best idea. Who could have known?
Oh well. At least we have the Firestorm.
The RAILS is... it technically is a thing we have. Take a Ravenmind. About 3 meters long, and pretty thick in other directions too, currently laid out horizontally in the front-center of the Firestorm. We could not miniaturize it, even by stripping out functions not needed in a single-weapon static-position ground emplacement, in the time allotted. That's the first problem we had. Then we have to add the sensor package. And the radio (admittedly not hard but still it all piles up). And the conical Firestorm-style CLAW. And the miniature Magmagel tank and cycling system for the CLAW. Then a Magmagel battery for general electrical needs. And a GOFAST generator along with its tank. Then cover it all in combat plating.
Not only is it very heavy, but it's also very big. It makes a huge target and requires an entire dedicated Bear trooper team to relocate. Slowly.
Firstly, the RAILS can not reliably identify anything that's not already being tracked by the Ravenmind as used in the Firestorm. At one point we got it to recognize infantry, but failed at the part where we get it to not shoot our own guys. Important part, so that's scrapped. Artillery bombardment is questionable. Unpowered non-gigantic projectiles go by unnoticed. Artillery and infantry-grade rockets and missiles have a miniature chance of being noticed. Aircraft, theoretical (not-super-weird) Aratamite spacecraft, anything directly relevant to a Firestorm? Probably. Not that they'll be passing within effective CLAW range of a RAILS anytime soon. Most of the target identification issues are caused by general inadequate software/processing, but ground sensor interference contributes to the problems a notable amount as well.
Secondly, power issues. We have to power the CLAW, the radio, the Ravenmind (which may not be a laser energy weapon but it is still a miniaturized supercomputer), and the extensive sensor suite. And we have to maintain a small tank and small generator. Without constant resupply, a RAILS is expected to completely run out of fuel in standard combat operating conditions. In scenarios where the CLAW is especially taxed, it could be significantly shorter. The GOFAST generator should at least be able to not have trouble powering it all at once, even if it runs out of fuel quickly.
Third, heating problems. With no space, budget, or power for a STABIL-ICE cooling system, a RAILS overheats very fast. The Ravenmind generates a lot of heat. The CLAW generates a lot of heat. The GOFAST generator generates a lot of heat. The entire assembly is a lot of heat, with nowhere for that heat to go. We expect for up to five to ten minutes after the CLAW is used in
any capacity, the entire assembly will begin overheating. It won't destroy or melt itself, but it will massively throttle itself. Ravenmind processing will go down to a fraction of its proper power, and CLAW fire rate goes down to levels which our testing soldiers have taken to calling "useless".
Communication of intelligence and data technically works, except for two problems:
1.) Information communicated just isn't that useful. Raw sensor data is too much for humans or the ORACLE to handle, and when on the ground and without proper modifications to improve intelligence gathering and compiling, the Ravenmind just won't get anything of particular use that we wouldn't already know through other means. This is by far the biggest problem here.
2.) Too many Ravenminds in an area and they'll start getting overwhelmed with data. This isn't normally a problem with Firestorms due to just better engineering on their part and because even cheap Firestorms wouldn't have the same ability to be congregated in a single area. But without the proper handshake protocols of the Firestorms, RAILS Ravenminds indiscriminately fling out and accept every piece of data they get. With enough Ravenminds within communication range, the massive amounts of data will bottleneck Ravenminds as they are forced to focus on processing all the received data, hurting more important functions.
All in all, the RAILS is not a useful piece of combat gear at the moment. It's huge, heavy, difficult to transport, and just not useful in combat thanks to intelligence limitations. It's at least
Cheap, costing
4 Ore,
2 Oil, and
1 Magmatite. Magmatite is needed for the minimal amounts of Magmagel used, oil is needed for the small tank (1 unit) of GOFAST fuel (+1 unit), and ore is needed to build the whole thing. Expense is rated at an infantry-scale level. Assuming we wanted to and had the capability to, we could deploy a
lot of RAILS across the battlefields. But they aren't useful enough to deploy, and even if they were useful enough we wouldn't be able to transport all of them without severely handicapping infantry thanks to transport requirements.
So a useless but technically complete autonomous laser turret. It may be useless now, but it gave us plenty of experience in the field if we want to try again (probably with a bigger budget) or if we were to do something else based off of it. Or we could always just modify away its flaws and make it useful. That's a decision for later.
Transport Capacity: 2/3 (2/2 Oil, 0/0 Ore Imported)
Space Transport Capacity: 1/2 (1/1 Magmatite Imported)
(+1 STC from Aratam's ANGEL Project)Resources: 4 Ore,
3 Oil,
2 MagmatiteMoon Region Rating: 2
Moon Resources: 1 Magmatite (Succesfully imported Moon Resources are included in "Resources" as well)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.
[Cheap] 2 Ore, 1 Oil, 2 Magmatite - ME-GWS-63 'TALON': A variant of the ME-CLAW-63 with expanded Magmagel tanks and capacitor arrays, that works on a controlled overload. Takes 5 seconds to charge a laser pulse which turns everything in its path to plasma, then a large chunk of its target to plasma. Needs a 30 second cooldown period between shots, and has an extensive STABIL-ICE cooling system. If cooling is damaged or overheated otherwise, weapon explodes violently. Can shoot 10 times before recharge (which can be done in-field by external connection or by using its host's power supply) Very heavy, and currently only fit for deployment as the primary weapon of a Grizzly.
[Expensive] 3 Ore, 1 Oil, 4 Magmatite - 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 - ME-MO-62 "Nameless Death": A large 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 - ME-LDT-64 'RAILS': Large heavy infantry-deployed useless autonomous Ravenmind CLAW turret. Lasts for an hour off of tiny GOFAST tank and generator, less if CLAW is used a decent amount. Overheats for 5-10m after CLAW firing, heavily throttling rate of fire and processing power. Cannot detect infantry targets or intercept enemy bombardment projectiles, just low-flying planes it's useless against. Radio allows medium-range communication of intel with other RAILS and field commanders/ORACLE, but no useful intel is produced and too many RAILS in a smallish area will overwhelm processor with data, bottlecapping it. Covered in thin COMBAT plating.
[Cheap] 4 Ore, 2 Oil, 1 Magmatite
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.
Equipped with COMBAT plating.
[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.
[Expensive] 4 Ore, 3+1 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. "Ursine Vision" system has 4 television cameras relayed to the pilot in the cockpit (who can choose to ignore them in favor of the fiberscope) as well as a dedicated Handler at the nearest ORACLE-A node, who points out important things, gives tactical advice, and relays intelligence to ORACLE-A. Cameras are obvious targets and delicate, but not essential to operation.
Equipped with COMBAT Plating.
[Expensive] 6 Ore, 3 Oil, 1 Magmatite
Spacecraft- ME-STS-64 'Starknight': A larger completely unarmored variant of the Skyranger designed for space and lunar travel. A Turbopumped-GOFAST rocket combustion engine powers multiple thruster nozzles all over the craft, all with good vectoring, allows for very good manueverability, speed, and fuel efficiency. It can land and take off form/into space just using landing gear on its bottom and can hover, though that's not recommended due to fuel usage concerns. ICE-cooling and ablative plating allows for relatively-low-maintenance atmospheric re-entry. Power provided by engines during burns and auxiliary GOFAST generators in other times. Panoramic electric display screen replaces window in cockpit, showing large amounts of data derived by the Birdbrain-based "Swallow" guidance system. A cramped pressurized crew compartment allows for a maximum crew of 6 for up to 2 weeks on its life support, with integrated CAT stations leading into a central Datalink conduit for every crewmember. Much larger unpressurized cargo hold has 2 HAUNTERs and 4 SERFs, and 2 GOFAST generators (used to power the craft or anything else). Has covered ports on outside of hull and on inside of cargo bay to connect Datalink conduits to, for uploading/downloading information and flight plans with ORACLE-A and letting the crew control any plugged-in remote controlled robot using the craft's integrated CAT stations. Rest of cargo hold has enough space for about half a dissembled Excavator. Requires a comprehensive flight plan from ORACLE-A via Datalink wires for orbital navigation. Equipped with radio.
+1 STU, +1 Moon Region Rating
[Very Expensive 5 Ore, 5 Oil - ME-ORMA-64 'Firestorm': Based on the Blizzard, extremely sleek obsidian black & bronze chassis with damascus steel-like details. Blizzard-style wings are placed further to the back, but are much stubbier and feel like an extension of the chassis. Covered in COMBAT plating, with the cockpit canopy having a COMBAT plating shutter. Powered by the "Ravenmind" Combat Assistive Computer which can give likely enemy flight patterns, analyze and target all enemies, assist in flight and manuevers, communicate with other Ravenminds and ORACLE-A over radio, and give every possible piece of pertinent information to the pilot via the 4-color canopy HUD (where most information is conveyed rather than through physical instruments). Ravenmind controls CLAWs by default, and can control TALON and/or flight systems if allowed. Combat is still very possible when shutters are closed thanks to Ravenmind-provided data. A slightly downscaled nose TALON with minor gimballing can fire to a small cone of fire at the front (air-cooled for poor rate of fire, ICE-cooled for better RoF at cost of re-entry/Mach 3 speed capability before refueling), and two CLAW "bubbles" on the sides with interior mirror gimballing can fire practically anywhere short of 90 degrees in any direction. 4 hours of oxygen and 8 MREs are provided, allowing for extra-atmosphere operations. Full docking with crew, fuel, power, Datalink, and life support 2-way transfer can be made by docking the top of the craft with other spacecraft. Transports like the Starknight can refuel the Firestorm in orbit and transport it to places like the moon, allowing for full orbital fighter operations. Powered by a single multimodal GOFAST-M rocket engine with a primary thruster and powerful RCS thrusters all along the craft. STABIL-ICE cooling and ablative plating for re-entry and Mach 3 speeds, though a max of 5 minutes at Mach 3 is allowed before maintenance will be required to do it again. Mach 2 cruising speeds, Medium range.
[Very Expensive] 6 Ore, 4 Oil, 4 Magmatite
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 that 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
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 fast-acting sprayable concrete mixture very useful for reinforcing tunnels when sprayed by trailers hooked to a Burrower. Allows use of Burrower tunnels for logistics.
Provides 1 TC.
- UT-60-L Excavator-L: Variant of Excavator with 8-hour life support and a 2-person crew cabin designed to remain pressurized outside of Earth's atmosphere. Airtight door can be docked with a temporary inflatable connector.
Other- GATE/HAUNTER: A large ring-shaped device with surrounding outer transparent chamber of Magmagel that, with assistance of N-Sensitive Volunteer, can create a tear in the fabric of reality (induces insanity if looked at) leading to the "N-Dimension". It must spend time "Locking" coordinates, where Volunteer forces section of the N-Dimension to be stable and known enough to lock it to a position in our dimension where we can enter it. Emerging point in N-Dimension can be up to a mile away from GATE, with instant travel time. Complete ORACLE-A coverage of or very recent Volunteer visit to target area required. 15 minutes required for a lock to an adjacent position, 2 hours for a mile away. SERF-based Datalink-controlled drone equipped with a sword and thrusters piloted by the Volunteer, the "HAUNTER", travels into the N-Dimension where Aratamite astral activity can be located and potentially an attempt can be made to stop or disrupt them. Tear remains open for 15m-1hr depending on how good Volunteer is at keeping the local landscape of the N-Dimension stable, though Volunteer can break the lock prematurely if needed. GATEs have to be constructed on site with premade parts shipped to site beforehand allowing construction in two days. HAUNTERs can not be recovered after deployment, making the design Complex.
[Very Expensive] 3 Ore, 2 Oil, 4 Magmatite, [Complex] - 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..
[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. Slowly decays over time in storage, making it unsuitable for anything not expecting 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 +0 Ore to cost. (+1 cost nullified by ME-RID-61 'SERF") - 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.
- ME-RID-61 'SERF': An unmanned thinner suit derived from Bear Armor, with near-human dexterity and a camera-like head. Remote controlled via cable connection to a pilot elsewhere hooked up via CAT, seeing via a television monitor and hearing via speakers. The SERF-2 version makes it much more skeletal, cheaper, and allows it to compact itself into a small cube-ish square in about 30 minutes and uncompact in about 3 minutes; all autonomously.
Reduces the cost of COMBAT plating from 1 Ore to 0.
Operation Plans- MARIA: Set up a mining outpost with Starknight landing pads surrounding an unpressurized warehouse with space for ores, oxygen, and fuel that has underground docks for lunar Excavators. Resupplies Excavators and facilities transport of humans into Excavators for piloting. Two humans per Excavator accompanied by a SERF mine in underground tunnels and bring the ore back to the warehouse for transport to Earth.
Potentially Provides 1 Ore OR [/color=darkred]1 Magmatite[/color]
Lunar Operation, No cost, Unique, Takes up 1 Region
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.
- H.O.P.E.: A laundry list of things very useful for doing things in orbit, the moon, and potentially beyond.
- Solaris System: Magmatite-enhanced solar panels with attached good energy storage and 20% solar cell efficiency.
Costs 1 Magmatite to add to a design. - Nanoseal Concrete: Variant of Instant Roads; material once applied slowly moves to create airproof seals. Requires multiple applications between waiting for it to clump together into sealed bits. Repairs nano breaches (micrometeroids or smaller), but bigger breaches require re-application. Must be sprayed on a medium/framework, e.g. bricks made from regolith. May cause cancer.
- Ursa Polaris: A space power suit. Based off of Bear armor, but with much less armor and plating and DUC-provided fabric wherever it can go. Not too outwardly big (especially compared to Bear armor) and doesn't hurt agility. Provides 3 hours of air (8 hours of power), and can be tethered with an optional oxygen connection. Troublesome to get in/out off without assistance.
- B.R.E.A.T.H. Module that regulates atmosphere in a closed environment, ensuring optimum oxygen/nitrogen mix. Recycles CO2 to good but not perfect efficiency, and can electrolyze water for more oxygen. Recycle of waste to recover most (not all) water and nutrients useful for plants.
- F.I.G. Simple hydroponics system module growing plants with nutrients from BREATH and water, in addition to long-lasting rations from Earth. Hydroponics currently is not recommended to sustain humans independently, but to supplement rations.
- Zephyr Modular airlock with own atmosphere tanks, solar panels, electronics, and sensors. Can be shipped in parts or as a whole (fits nicely as main cargo of a Starknight). Contains two lockers for Polaris suits.
- A.L.W.V. Ambiguous Lunar Wheeled Vehicle, a smallish flat bed battery-powered vehicle with good suspension and 8 wheels. Can fit an inflatable pressurized "cabin" to fit driver and 6 passengers, a cargo hold, a towing system, storage+laying for cables and conduits of all types, tanks for liquid/gaseous substances, etc..
[Cheap] 3 Ore, 1 Magmatite
Provides +1 Region Rating
- 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.
You may optionally vote on a single "intrigue" action to take focusing on oddities in Mereth, the landmass, Aratam, or even internationally. This will hopefully yield useful results, but it is not to be used to attempt to perform wartime espionage on Aratam. This action simply represents our division's internal efforts to investigate recent goings-on. There may or may not be consequences.
Author
Topic: Mad Arms Race - Mereth Design Division (Fall 1965 - Final Design Phase) (Read 83404 times)