Turn 4 Design Phase ResultsHellephant Gun
On its own, the Sujian wastes near utter lack of water and hellish heat would make for an environment that is extremely difficult to survive in. So of course, it is not just very dry and hot and hostile to human life in general. The fauna that is native to this desert is also dangerous, ranging from 'will attack and likely kill you if you wander to close' all the way to 'evacuate the settlement if this is heading towards it'. Leaning towards the latter end of the spectrum, the Hellephant, so named for its resemblance to an Earth elephant from a distance, is a very large and extraordinarily aggressive specimen.
Of course, having to pack your bags and run very much isn't ideal; and so a weapon that could at least drive off some of these super-fauna was needed. And so lead to the creation of the 'Hellephant Gun', derived from earthly high-caliber weaponry meant to hunt big game, this large rifle is a bit easier to handle than one would expect (do note, the term 'easier' was used, not 'easy'. This is not a weapon for the weak and unprepared, it can very easily knock one over if mishandled).
Most of this ease of use lies within its Sujium assisted ammunition; by exploiting Sujium's properties, the amount of force exerted upon the bullet by its gunpowder charge can be doubled without any increase in recoil! Though of course, this charge is lesser than would be normal for such a caliber, as ideally a gun shouldn't shatter bones every time it's fired. The sujium used is not integrated into the bullet, as Sujium's properties would certainly introduce more uncertainty into the bullets ballistics, not to mention the effects on drag and the fact that sujium's tendency to 'bounce' would likely degrade armor penetration; and so the bullet is ensconced within a Sujium sabot, designed to break away after leaving the barrel and imparting its sub-caliber bullet with every last ounce of Sujium-doubled force while maintaining a normal ballistic trajectory.
The Hellephant Gun itself is a very large bolt-action weapon feeding from a magazine fully integrated within its buttstock; a measure taken to help weigh down the sujium in its ammunition with mundane weight to help prevent it from flying off (not to mention that its position is where the gun moves the least while aiming); and reloading consists of totally removing it and replacing it with a fresh one. Notably, a consequence of this reloading style is the fact that the gun can be breech-loaded; for the times when one has spare bullets but not a spare loaded magazine-stock. Which distressingly may be more frequent than one would like given the bulk of the later.
Difficult (9 +
-1 = 16 (Superior Craftsmanship)
The use of a Sujium Sabot to deliver a powerful boost of momentum to the projectile from a Hellephant Gun was an inspired stroke of genius. The doubling of the gunpowder's force imparted upon the bullet without having the drawbacks of the bullet itself being Sujium means that the weapon can fire with far more strength than the equivalent Elephant gun, even using less powder so that the kickback doesn't immediately obliterate the shoulder of the wielder.
Designed to take down Hellephants and other megafauna local to the Sujia area, the gun also rips right through metal plating. This is important, because Hellephants actually wear armor that they make by stamping on rocks and ores until the heat and pressure of their repeated stomps purifies metal and shapes it into wide metal plates, curved by the shape of their feet and the ground underneath, and carried in their trunks until they can force-weld them into armor that will fit over their backs and heads; the armor may be crude, and the metal impure, but even this sign of intellect combined with their shear size and the angry rampages that they go on make them a dangerous threat. So having a weapon that can pierce right through the armor they carry and deep into their thick muscles capable of forging that armor without any fire, hopefully into vital organs or at least into veins to make it bleed out, is very important.
Even so, taking precautions to make sure the gun doesn't have to be so strong that it must be an emplacement, firing multiple rounds in succession can be a risky proposition to it's wielder. It's suggested you learn to shoot ambidextrously, switching between shoulders between shots so that you don't do too much damage to your body. And to brace it against the ground if you can. Still, the magazine holds eight bullets and their sabots in the buttstock, which is easily replaced, and as long as you take precautions to give your muscles time to relax after shooting once, you can get all eight shots off in a minute. Not that you should need to in most situations.
As mentioned, should one have unloaded bullets, the gun can be breach loaded, as often as need be - enough magazines (and buttstocks) as a troop should need are easily supplied and distributed, with enough extra bullets (some stocked in oobleck, some "loose" and weighed down) to restock the magazines in between battles. But the option does still exist, for in a long protracted battle against armored troops, it may be necessary. Or if something worse than a Hellephant is discovered.
It only takes
2 Ore to make the weapon, but to procure the explosives needed for the projectiles it takes
3 Oil and
1 Sujium.
Obsidian Raven
Life within the Sujian Wastelands is utterly alien from that of Earth's; and this is only partially due to the majority of said life being silicon-based instead of the carbon-based life we were used to. Still, despite all of their differences, they occasionally manifest some eerily similar occurrences. One of those is a large, seemingly decently intelligent bird that we have taken to calling 'Obsidian Ravens'.
The avian's may seem very similar from a distance, but up close the distinction is far more obvious, with this bird's feathers instead consisting of very thin, sharp, slates of black rock. A defense that would be extremely formidable back on Earth. It is a defense that is largely wholly insufficient out in the wasteland. Hence, the Obsidian Raven largely fulfills a scavenger role within the wastes (though it is notable that the Ravens that live more towards the edges of the wastes are more aggressive, we figure that it is because they can bully their more 'mundane' neighbors for food sources); however, none of these features are what caught our attention to the birds. When one of our members, a veteran hunter and birdwatcher, noticed unusual behavior between some of the predators of the wastes, where they displayed an unusually above average knowledge of where their prey was; and in almost all cases, the Raven's were present. As if they were leading them to their goal.
'Domestication' efforts were tricky at first, in trying to calm down these flighty creatures enough for efforts to be made, as well as handling their very dangerous plumage, but the Sujian Spirit is not one to be stopped from a few failures or cuts! In the end though, the occasional scavenger has been seen working with these avians to help them find resources critical for our people. Though in true Sujian fashion how they utilize the birds is a total mess of methods; some merely teach them how to carry and use old cameras; others use precise acrobatic sequences to convey back knowledge; some swear that some of the master tamers manage to speak with the birds themselves! However, the craziest have to be those who have tried to teach the ravens how to utilize Shattershell grenades!
Hard (10 + 7) -3 = 14 (Above Average)
The second of silicafauna that have been tamed and domesticated by Sujia, the Obsidian Raven does indeed closely resemble a raven, or a hawk, or maybe a vulture, from earth. The scrappy little "birds" (little known fact, they have live births instead of laying eggs, which makes them technically not birds) have sharp rocky feathers, hollow crystalline bones, and a sharp intelligence. These creatures are not lithovores like the Silicalisks, but rather, are carnivorous, feeding off of other silicafauna native to the area. They are adverse to consuming carbon-based meat, but will do it in a pinch, as they are scavengers after all.
The habits of the more dangerous creatures of the wastes of following the Ravens to prey indicate a strong intellect or instinct within the Ravens, leading the predators to easy or weakened prey, then benefiting off of it by taking a tax from the kill. And so, our attempts to domesticate them as a scouting tool.
By kidnapping their young, accustoming them to human interaction, and training them, we have come to understand that they should mostly be handled something like a cross between hawks or homing pigeons; most Obsidian Raven owners use blinders to keep the birds focused, and heavy sleather gloves for them to perch on. Many keep them in cages until time for them to fly. The aggression shown by the birds does make them hard to handle, but a prepared trainer can calm the birds with samples of food, and control them with strict training. What the training entails varies greatly between owners of course, ranging from cruel punishment to scolding, to gentle stroking, to holding a seemingly intelligent discussion.
Of course, second generation Obsidian ravens are easier to handle, but one notes a decreased fear of people and a decrease in aggression, as well as a decrease in their keen instincts to track prey and their willingness to breed. Third generation tamed ravens are almost completely unwilling to be bred, but are very gentle companions and most have a knack of mimicking human sounds - not as good as a parrot, but well enough, and very trainable. But this does mean that trainers often opt to hike out into the wilderness and steal young Obsidian Ravens from their nests. And they are fairly long lived - none has been known to die of old age yet, merely malnutrition or injuries from more deadly animals attacking them; or disease, though fortunately no human diseases have crossed the species barrier (We're not even sure they can, since we aren't silicafauna).
Although training methods vary, and the wild adults refuse to be trained or captured, the ease of training their young has led to their use for many tasks, such as scouting with cameras, mimicry of overheard strategems, or using a complex series of aerobatic tricks to communicate the positions of enemy troops or potential food. Trainers will use more docile ravens trained in captivity to seek out wild ones, and some have been armed to drop grenades on the enemy.
To train and feed them, we require a constant supply of food they will eat - which is most foods, including carbon based foods, but the best foods are silicafauna meat. This can come from dead silicalisks, but having them lead us to wild game for us to kill is more useful. Constantly having to import silicameat and capture more of their young does come at a cost, though. In abstract terms, the ravens cost
3 ore and
1 TC.
Transport Capacity: 0/1 General + 1/2 Sujium (
1 Ore,
1 Oil available,
1/1 Sujium transported)
Resources: 3 Ore (0/1 imported),
1 Oil (0/1 imported),
2 Sujium (1/1 imported)Credits: None right now.
Weapons- Makeshift Earth Rifle (Cheap): Based on designs from home, cobbled together from native materials with remaining architecture. Mediocre accuracy at Long Range, good Accuracy at Medium. 1 Ore
- AK-10 Jezail (Cheap): Accurate out to Long range, devastating up close. Durable, dependable, although quirky. Lower capacity magazine, but quiet and sighted. 2 Ore
- Standard Issue Pulse Pistol (Cheap): Moderately understood alien tech in the shape of a pistol. Variable energy controls range from starting small fires to stopping a heart. It's battery powered, but its maximum energy pulses still use a lot of their juice; stun level shots are recommended as the battery life is exceptional. Very accurate up to short range, somewhat accurate at medium range. 2 Ore, 1 Oil
- Shattershell Grenades (Expensive): Simple fragmentation grenades that pack a lot of bang for the buck. 1 ore,3 oil
- Powdershell Grenades (Expensive): Smoke grenades that cover a wide field range for cover or marking position. Color of the smoke can be selected on the fly just before detonating it. 1 Ore, 2 Oil
- Hellephant Gun (Expensive): Very large bolt action weapon, prone to knock down the weak and/or unprepared shooter. Very well made, utilizing Sujium Sabots to double the strength of the explosion, but not have the downside of the Sujium bouncing off of the enemy armor. Capable of taking down even armored megafauna, and being breach loaded. Holds 8 bullets in it's buttstock magazine at once. 2 Ore, 1 Sujium, 3 oil
Vehicles- MULE - Mining Utility Levitating Excavator (Expensive): Hovercraft cargo vehicle, with a scoop arm to load and unload it. Naturally slow but each one has been sped up to acceptable speeds for quick material and man transport with some crazy means - rocket engines, silicalisk chariot, "all power to forward thrusters", or even crazier. Each one has a personality to fit it's crew, and it provides 1 TC now (1 more when made Cheap), and access to 1 remote ore. 4 Ore, 2 Sujium, 2 oil
OtherStandard Uniform: A plain uniform with very little decoration or utility. There is a space for rank insignia, and some colored markings but it's rather plain.- Infantry Armor//Grade L: Armored protection up to modern standards, made from PETA-provoking live-harvested Silicalisk leather (Sleather) instead of Kevlar; the bowl helmets have the unfortunate name of MISTACE, but the uniform will stand up to live fire and strong acids, and the MISTACE will easily stick in the craw of a rampaging beasty.
- Reverse-Engineered Extraction Equipment (Expensive): A mining hammer, using alien minerals and tech to multiply it's momentum drastically; power hungry to control, but allows for very rapid mining expansion, and once out of power, goes out of control. Provides 1 Ore and 1 Sujium. 4 Ore, 2 Sujium
- Oobleck Storage Crates: Exploits starches in water to safely transport Sujium long distances. Be very very careful on unpacking. Provides 2 Sujium specific TC, and 1 importable Sujium.
Creatures- Battle Silicalisk (Cheap): Silicon based animals somewhere in shape between a horse and a mole with rocky hides and sharp claws, bred and trained for the purposes of fighting. Very aggressive and will turn on trainers if not fed rocks and ores. Acidic saliva, ability to spit it removed at young age to control it. 4-1 Ore
- Acid Muzzle: Keeps the mouth clamped shut when acid spit isn't needed. Reduces the cost of Silicalisks by 1 ore, and lets them spit acid.
- Acid Rations: By supplementing the Silicalisk diet with harvested hydrochloric acid, it reduces their need to drink and improves their organic acid's strength and their aggression, marginally improving battle capabilities while freeing up water for humans to drink. 1 Oil
- Obsidian Raven (Expensive): Intelligent scout silicafauna, trained to scout and use small tools. Can bring back pictures, snippets of sound, and information on enemy positions to their trainers. Training methods and what they're trained to do vary wildly, and each successive generation in captivity is less dangerous and easier to train, but also less likely to breed and loses some instinctive natures. Impossibly long lived. 3 Ore, 1 TC
It is now the turn 4 revision phase. At the end of this phase will be the judging of the second lore contest for a Research Credit, and turn 5 will be the first with a combat phase.
Author
Topic: Absolutely Absurd Abductee Arms Race: F. Cities of Sujia (Turn 4 Revision Phase) (Read 10101 times)