A few designs just in case the others don't pan out.
ME-GL-63 "Blast Shield":What if... we could merge a shield and a weapon together? What if... we could create a weapon-shield?
The Blast Shield is a shield that doubles as a weapon, or a weapon that doubles as a shield. We've integrated the Bear Armor's metal slab shield with... well, any other weapon. The CLAW. One of our autocannons. The ICE Thrower. A newly developed rudimentary grenade launcher. Our mortar. The Blast Shield combines the metal slab shield with any other infantry weapon to create a device that both protects and fires shots.
This is a bit easy for a design, so we made some other adjustments. When the Blast Shield is hit with an electrical attack, a rubber coating on the parts where the Bear Trooper grips the Shield and a metal spike on the bottom that can be driven into the ground to ground the electricity protect against the electrical burst.
That's also easy, really. Here comes the third and final innovation. The MagShield. SEEMs are good at aiming. So let's make it harder for their bullets to get where they were aimed. The MagShield tech we use uses a set of powerful electromagnets to create a magnetic field that both propels bullets fired by the Blast Shield at higher velocities and causes enemy bullets to deflect to the side.
~~~
ME-MRL-63 "Flock Launcher":Aratam has been beating us in artillery for a while. That changes now. We're replacing our Sarukh with something that can shoot more, shoot further, shoot faster, shoot deadlier, shoot smarter, and deploy propaganda.
The Flock Launcher is a greatly improved rocket launcher. The Sarukh has a 4x2 rail array to fire rockets. Let's fire more. The Flock Launcher fires a whole flock of rockets using a 4x4 rail array. 16 whole rockets, which can all be fired at once.
We've adapted the old ICE Rockets to fire further. Aircraft generate lift using wings, why can't rockets use the same effect? Every rocket fired by the Flock Launcher has a set of four wings that act to improve stability and hence accuracy, but also generate lift which allows the rockets to stay in the air longer, enhancing range.
Deadlier? Yes please. You see, the Flock Launcher rockets use the same WAR system that the Shrikes use. Each Flock rocket can configure its warhead for maximum damage against its selected target.
Smarter? Of course. You see, the Flock Launcher can operate on the orders of a Birdbrain to strategically select targets. A Flock Launcher barrage can effectively act as a bombardment of precise Shrike missiles. There are two options to command the Flock rockets. Either a nearby Blizzard can use its Birdbrain to designate targets manually, or a special Flock Leader rocket can be fired which carries a compressed Birdbrain instead of a warhead. The Flock Leader then can autonomously select enemy targets for destruction by its fellow birds(then hit an enemy itself with pure blunt force). Just for fun, we've programmed the Flock Leader rocket to specifically target SEEMs for its own kinetic impact. Beat that.
I did mention propaganda. As a form of psychological warfare, Flock rockets can be loaded with a large canister of leaflets to scatter over an area. Leaflets which will carry our propaganda, including the following message:
"If our rocket was loaded with ICE, you would be dead right now. We have mercy, unlike your leaders. If you defect to our side, we will greet you with open arms and a free bowl of ICE Cream. Join Mereth today. For freedom."
~~~
ME-MAG-63 "Ubergun":So we need to destroy the enemy's defenses. At first we had the idea to make some big artillery guns and call them superguns. Massive things capable of firing across battlefields and then some. Then we decided that wasn't capital M Mad enough. So we designed a bigger gun. It just kinda scaled until we ended up having an artillery cannon so big it could fire from MAGMA to Aratam's Hub. We would love to demolish that thing, but we can't really do anything about the civilian casualties. So we tabled that possibility for now. The Ubergun, as we're calling it, is still plenty useful for bombarding any enemy position we know about.
Such a big gun needs an unconventional propellant. Like... none at all. This would seem crazy, but we've developed an alternate means of propulsion: electromagnetism. We call it a Magnetic Acceleration Gun for a reason. Powerful electromagnets are used by the Ubergun to propel a massive metal-and-high-explosive round at absurd distances and velocities. The use of electromagnetic propulsion also prevents early detonation of the explosives inside the Ubershell. By massive, how massive do we mean? Massive enough, that's what. So massive that nothing short of the Ubergun could fire it. Massive enough that the sheer force of impact sets the explosives off. The sheer force of impact of having the shell descend from basically outer space. Yes, that's right. The Ubergun fires shells so high they go into space before coming back down on the enemy.
But how do we power the Ubergun? A very good question. We've taken advantage of MAGMA's depths here. MAGMA goes so deep that we can pump down water, which turns into steam in the depths, which rises and turns wheels, generating power... then the steam condenses back into water which goes back down again... we've built a power plant based on the "Principle of Free Energy" as our geologists are calling it. On top of powering the Ubergun, it also powers all of MAGMA.
The Ubergun will let us devastate enemy positions with ease. And we'll get the massive cred of being the first to develop a superweapon!
(1) ME-EAP-63 "Skyranger": Piratejoe
- (1) but rename it ME-EAP-63 "Steel Rain": Piratejoe
(1) ME-EAP-63 "Firestorm": Andrea
(3) ME-DNI-63 "Brainwave": Madman, Maximum Spin, Happerry
(1) ME-MAG-63 "Ubergun": FallacyofUrist
Let's do something cool.
Author
Topic: Mad Arms Race - Mereth Design Division (Fall 1965 - Final Design Phase) (Read 83520 times)