EcoS-K-55 Chromanid Warmount (aka ‘Peacock Legger’. ‘Spider Samurai’)
http://i408.photobucket.com/albums/pp164/taalismn/img465_zpsf4c8c3ff.jpg “Spiders! Spiders! Why, oh why does it always have to be SPIDERS!???!!! AAAWWWGGGHHHHH!!!!”
“Look, I know you have a problem with spiders, but these are all bright and shiny and they look festive and friendly and-”
“WWWWWWAAAAGGGHHHHHHHH!!!”
“Not helping matters any, Charmon. Lea, knock her out, will you? Seska, I mean, not Charmon. We’re going to get captured by those Shemarrians out there anyways, I’d rather not have her go full meltdown and make things messier than they have to be.”
“We’re surrendering, sir?”
“We’re surrounded, they just zapped our last air transport, our employers just told me over the comm they’re not sending extraction, and the nice ladies out there just made us an offer that if we cooperate, they won’t kill us, maim us, or torture us. Since we didn’t get paid nearly enough to stand our ground and die, I’d say we’re surrendering.” The Chromanid is an arachnid Warmount that appears to be inspired by the Australian ‘peacock spider’, a small jumping spider with flamboyant display coloring.
The Chromanid has an arachnid body chassis carried on eight legs, and has a high humped ‘head’ ringed with laser-eyes. The rider sits behind this ‘hunch’, which limits their field of vision somewhat.
The most telling feature of the Warmount, however, is its deployable array of high-powered lights and illumination lasers that rise and unfold from the abdomen. This array can be used as an offensive weapon, point defense, to blind or bedazzle, send long range laser communications, or even to project holograms(as presentation or distraction).
In combat, the Chromanid acts as a light, fast, rough terrain scout and sniper, using its laser array to pick at targets of opportunity on the battlefield. Groups of Chromanids can also be massed for laser barrages. Wise commanders, however, will try to keep the Chromanid out of close combat, as the Warmount is relatively fragile and can only dish out light damage in melee engagements.
Between its lasers and its LED-illuminated armor, the Chromanid is one of the more flamboyant Warmounts of the Shemarrians, along with the Majestrex and the Quetzal. It often features in the festivities and rituals of the Wayfinders and Horrorwoods Tribes.
The Chromanid was developed jointly by the Wayfinders and the Horrorwoods and appears with both Tribes. The Silvermoons are particularly amused by the many similarities between the Chromanid and their own Majestrex Warmount and, while they have not adopted any Chromanids into their ranks, do bait and engage Chromanid riders into engaging in contests of accuracy and laser power between the two types. Since the contests are almost invariably played out on the battlefield, with the common enemy being the targets of the matches, the only real losers in these match ups are the Shemarrians’ enemies.
Type: EcoS-K-55 Chromanid
Class: Robotic Warmount, Arachnoid
Crew: None; robot intelligence, Awakened with an Ecotroz essence
1 rider/pilot, and room for 1 passenger
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 260
Head 90
Large Eyes(2) 20 each
Small Eyes(6) 12 each
Mandibles 45
Spotlights(2) 15 each
Legs(8 ) 120 each
Laser Array 180
Height: 9 ft (18 ft w/ rear laser array fully raised)
Width: 8 ft
Length: 18 ft
Weight: 2,100 lbs
Cargo: Small space inside/beside the saddle-seat for a few personal possessions and sidearms.
Physical Strength: Equivalent to Robotic P.S. of 30
Powerplant: Nuclear w/ 20 year energy life
Speed: (Running) 90 MPH
(Leaping) Can make an astonishing standing leap of 60 ft up/across. A running start in excess of 40 MPH adds 1d4x10 yards across/15 ft to height.
(Flying) Not possible
(Space) Not possible
(Underwater) limited to running along the bottom at 25 MPH, maximum depth of 800 ft.
Market Cost: Exclusive to the Ecotroz-Shemar
Systems of Note:
Full optical systems, laser targeting, passive nightvision, telescopic vision, thermal imaging, infrared, ultraviolet, and polarization filters. Also has motion and heat detection, built-in radar( 60 mile range) and other standard power armor-equivalent systems. Additional/special sensors may be built in by the creating Spinsters or at the behest of individual riders/owners.
*Molecular Foot Pads----The Chromanid can cling to and climb any sufficiently strong surface that can hold its weight. Note that the rider and passengers had better be firmly belted on or they’ll fall off during such maneuvers.
*Winch and Grapple---Rather than have the ability to produce webbing, the Chromanid has a belly-mounted winch and cable, with a 200 ft range and a molecular adhesion grapple head.
*Bionic Cybernanite Repair Systems---ALL Chromanid have the same bionic nanotech repair system that the Ecotroz Shemar have refitted themselves with, and which is becoming the standard among NeShemar as well. These systems repair 4d6 MD per hour, and can repair 100 MDC before needing material stocks to convert to MD repair material.
*Glo-Bands---The long legs of the Chromanid are banded in LED material that can create bands of multicolored lights that can rotate and ‘slide’ the length of the legs. These are usually used for festive display, but can also be used in semaphore-like communications.
*TW Optics---The Wayfinders have fitted the Chromanid with special passive TW optical sensors, giving it the following abilities:
-Sense PPE
-See the Invisible
-See Auras
Weapons Systems:
1)Eye Lasers(8 ) ---Standard robotic eye lasers, common in the Shemarrian arsenal.
Range: 2,000 ft
Damage: 3d6 MD single blast, 18d6(or 1d6x18 ) MD if all six eyes are firing on one target simultaneously(the two rear eyes can only fire separately).
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited
2) Laser Array---The rear abdomen of the Chromanid is a large folding laser array, patterned after that of the K-17 Majestrex. though slightly less powerful and capable of creating holograms at a distance. The lasers are variable intensity, and can deliver an area of effect blinding flash capable of burning out unprotected eyeballs, or can be dialed up to armor-vaporizing intensity. Furthermore, the Dazzler Array is variable frequency, and can quickly adjust to circumvent the laser-resistant properties of such armors as the Glitterboy’s megachromium plating. Combined, the total output of the synchronized laser projectors can deliver a truly impressive photonic punch over long range. The Dazzler Array also has applications as a field antimissile laser system, able to pluck enemy projectiles out of the air with relative ease.
Note: Deploying the array takes less than 5 seconds and takes NO APMs. When fully opened, the speed of the Chromanid suffers no diminishment in speed as with the Majestrex(the Wayfinders like to rub this fact in when in competition with their Silvermoon rivals).
Range: 7,000 ft
Damage: (Variable)
(Flash-Blinder Mode)Generates blinding effects similar to the Wilks Blinding Grenade(see Rifts Game Master Guide, pg. 177), blinding victims for 1d4 melees, -8 to strike, parry, and dodge, lose initiative and 2 APMs, afterwards the victims are stricken with blurred vision for another 2d4 melees; -1 initiative, -4 to strike, parry, dodge, and lose 1 APM. Even polarizing optics and eye protection are not able to screen out this attack, and even those in power armor or vehicles with optical protection will lose initiative and 1 APM from the flash. Cameras and optical systems will be temporarily overloaded for 1d4 melee rounds.
At ranges of 200 ft or less, those without eye protection must save versus Coma/Death, or risk PERMANENT blindness from the intensity of the lasers on their optical nerves.
Flash-Blind Mode can be directed at specific targets at maximum range(counts as an aimed shot) or an area of effect attack can be called, affecting onlookers in a 45-degree arc in front of the Majestrex out to a maximum range of 500 ft.
(MD Mode) 1d6 MD to 1d10x10 MD per shot
If fighting in broad daylight without any sort of shade impeding light intake, the lasers get an extra +2 to damage. In airless space, with no atmosphere to impede solar energy, this gets increased to +4(at ranges similar to Earth and Mars...beyond that, as solar intensity wanes, so does energy absorption).
If the solar array has time to absorb solar energy prior to combat, the lasers get an extra +6 MD(+12 MD in airless space) to damage for every hour of solar absorption, for the first minute of combat, or get an extra minute of increased damage(at the +2 level) per hour of prior charge-up.
The lasers also get an extra +2 to damage the following melee, for every laser impact hitting the laser array, as a portion of the laser energy is absorbed, converted, and rerouted to the laser projectors.
The lasers can also project holographic images at a distance. The environment MUST have some sort of atmospheric medium (smoke, water vapor) for the images to be projected on, but the Chromanid can project images up to 60 feet in size, up to 6,000 ft away.
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively unlimited.
Bonus: The Dazzler Array gets a +4 to strike owing to the superior placement and triangulation available to the lasers. It can also adjust frequencies within 1d4 melees to overcome laser-resistant armors.
3)(Optional) Modular Weapons(1)---The Chromanid has provision for torso-mounting a single weapon pod similar to those standard to the Monstrex.
Programming:
The Ecotroz have installed robotic AIs, then infected the matrix with a low-level Ecotroz sentience. Has an effective animal-I.Q. of 14.
Typically has the base programming of the Monstrex, plus the following:
Dance 50%(+5% per level of experience for Ecotroz entity)
Flag Code/Semaphore 70%(+5% per level of experience for Ecotroz entity)
The Ecotroz entity can also pick up one Secondary skill at levels 2, 6, and 12 of experience, though the nature of the Chromanid intelligence and design is such that it is limited to skill selections from Technical: Language(understanding) and Lore, Espionage(Detect Ambush, Detect Concealment), Wilderness(Track Humanoids, Track Animals, Hunting, Identify Plants and Fruits)
Actions/Attacks Per Melee: 6
Initiative +3 (+1 from the Ecotroz entity for a total of +4)
Dodge +6
Automatic Leap Dodge +2
Strike +1 (+2 w/ ranged weaponry)
Roll +4
Pull +4
Bite 2d6 MD
Stomp 2d6 MD
Swat 1d4 MD
Kick 2d6 MD
Punch/Stab 2d4 MD
Leap Attack/Pounce(2 APMs) 6d6 MD
Note: The Ecotroz intelligence fragment inhabiting the ‘bot gives the Chromanid an aura and behavior more befitting a sentient being than a robot. The arachnoids are surprisingly timid and leery of closing with opponents, preferring to stand off at long range and snipe, but they are also excellent stalkers, very attentive to their surroundings and very perceptive. If they have to close to melee combat, they fully commit themselves. Chromanids are also surprisingly friendly, and bond well with their riders and associates.
The Ecotroz fragment does occasionally need sleep/rest...though they only need 2 hours of rest/meditation per 24 hours...they can push this, going without for as many days as they have I.Q. points(most Warmounts, unless otherwise noted, have an effective IQ rating of 8 ), but will have to go dormant for 4d6 hours after such exertion.
Note also that the Ecotroz-possessed ‘bot can infect other bots with the Ecotroz viral-entity, by bite or sustained touch(takes 3 attacks).
Options:
*TW PPE Generators and TW Systems---The Chromanid can be fitted with crystalline PPE generators and the ability to project spells, typically light- or illusion-based spells.
PPE Capacity:(Light)----200 PPE battery capacity; recharges at 10 PPE per hour, 20 PPE/hour at a leyline, 40 PPE/hour on a nexus
(Medium)-----300 PPE battery capacity; recharges at 10 PPE per hour, 40 PPE/hour at a leyline, 80 PPE/hour on a nexus
(‘Wizard’)----400 PPE battery capacity; recharges at 14 PPE per hour, 50 PPE/hour at a leyline, 100 PPE/hour on a nexus
Common Spells(typically at levels 2-10 of proficiency):
*Globe of Daylight(1 PPE)
*Chameleon (3 PPE)
*Multiple Image (4 PPE)
*Shadow Meld (5 PPE)
*Chromatic Protection(5 PPE)
*Horrific Illusion(5 PPE)
*House of Glass (6 PPE)
*Apparition(10 PPE)
*Illusion Manipulation (13-30)
*Illusion Booster (8)
*Illusory Wall(8-15)
*Invisibility: Simple(3)
*Invisibility: Superior(10)
*Illusory Forest(23-45)
*Illusory Terrain(28-60)