Shemarrian-related fan creations

[taalismn]

OOouuuucccchhhhhhhh.....yeah, don't bring up 'conventions of war' or 'codes of mercy' around these fringies...
Well done, DhAkael, well done(of course that's how these girls like enemy territory).

I can see them dropping comets of frozen oxygen and other volatiles into planetary atmospheres just to create giant fuel-air explosives.

[kronos]

*Visiting Flamewing Berserker visits a Skullcrusher, looks at her weapon rack,* "Call that a gun?" *pointing at a Goddess Hammer.*
"THIS is a gun! *shows her Skullcrusher counterpart her weapon rack.*
*Skullcrusher stares like a deer in headlights,* "OOoooh... Shiny!"

[taalismn]

'Would you burn down a house just to kill a single fly?"
"Yes."
"...okay, that was really a rhetorical question..."

[kronos]

'Would you burn down a house just to kill a single fly?"
"Yes."
"...okay, that was really a rhetorical question..."

Just like nuking a city to kill the cockroaches.. provided they didn't survive the explosion and the radiation.. then orbital kinetic kill bombardment is required.

[taalismn]

'Would you burn down a house just to kill a single fly?"
"Yes."
"...okay, that was really a rhetorical question..."

Just like nuking a city to kill the cockroaches.. provided they didn't survive the explosion and the radiation.. then orbital kinetic kill bombardment is required.

Or destroying any and all spacecraft on a planet that might be used for evacuation, rather than allow a plague or particularly nasty alien species from being able to escape offworld.

[DhAkael]

PREEEEEty much.

[taalismn]

"We blow things up, we burn them down."
"Okkkkkkkaaaayyyyy....moving right along....Any more sociopaths on the meet-and-greet list?"
"Well, Chief, there's the ones obsessed with wasps, a bunch who live only in radioactive wastelands, and a woman named 'Ripper'."
"Glad I had my glass of battery acid this morning, then!"

[DhAkael]

Looking forwards to seeing our next contestants on "W.T.H. produced THIS pack of whack-job gynoids?!"

[taalismn]

Looking forwards to seeing our next contestants on "W.T.H. produced THIS pack of whack-job gynoids?!"

"Well, you see, we got our start when the original Windows Z OS crashed, and this mad scientist had to write software patches for all of us, and well, then-"
"NEXT!!!!"
(after several rounds of what amounts to 'The CyberGong Show', some of the evaluators are BEGGING for combat assignments)

[taalismn]

(another 89er concept)

Steel Gaians(Fringe Tribe)
(aka ‘Anvil Fists’)

“Watch the sparks fly! Hear the hammers’ heartbeat! Smell the hot metal! Taste the electricity! Work is our life! Good honest work!”

In continua where Greater New England and Paladin Steel dominate the American Northeast, the situation with regards to the Shemarrian Nation has led to a degree of necessary accommodation. Tribes such as the Darkwaters and Blood Riders, whose territories overlap the core of Greater New England, are permitted to come and go as they please, aloof as always. However, there is a small group of Shemarrians who associate more freely with their neighbors. Even the tribal icons seem to allude to the GNE’s own tree-centered coat of arms and green state colors.
Members of the Steel Gaians live and work in the environs of Greater New England, living in small guarded private enclaves, but working in the cities and communities of the GNE. There they openly work adapting Paladin Steel-made technologies to their own use and occasionally sharing their developments with their neighbors. Even their tribal name, ‘Steel Gaians’, invokes the idea that though they may be cybernetic, the Shemarrians are linked and devoted to Earth(and by association, their terrestrial allies and neighbors). Their sense of industry and of constantly being seen working on something has also earned them the nickname ‘Anvil Fists’.
For their part, the civil authorities cautiously regard the Steel Gaians much as they do the Longhouse Preserve; effectively as ‘aliens in residence’, friendly but independent. This means that while the Shemarrians may live and work in the GNE, they don’t pay income taxes(entirely voluntary), can sell their goods duty-free, and cannot be expelled or arrested without due process of law. They are also required to show proper identifications when traveling in and out of the GNE, and some areas of national security are forbidden to them, without proper authorization. Though the Steel Gaians may profess to being ‘dissidents’, they clearly still have strong contacts and connections with the rest of their Shemarrian kin, and thus the GNE is eager not to alienate the Shemarrian Nation by mistreating the Anvil Fists. GNE and Paladin Steel intelligence organizations are also under no illusion that the Steel Gaians aren’t sharing information with the Shemarrian Nation, but the SGs have obligingly kept the GNE in the loop on a number of important subjects, and Shemarrian Star Nation vessels often escort, free of charge, PS/ASI cargo vessels through trouble spots in the Three Galaxies.
The Steel Gaians have sometimes been derided as ‘House Shemarrians’, rather than proper Shemar, by both other Shemarrians and the more paranoid or cynical outsiders. They’ve also been known to have been derogatorily referred to by the more conservative Shemarrians as ‘meatphiles’ or ‘meat-rumpers’. For their part, the Shemarrian Nation elders recognize and even encourage the Steel Gaians’ public relations value, as the GNE sees ‘happy, friendly, helpful Shemarrians’ allied to them, rather than a separate and potentially dangerous alien culture encroached on GNE borders. Indeed, it is more than likely that more than a few of the ‘dissidents’ are actually deliberately planted operatives of the Ten, meant to further their domestic spying on their allies, and plant misinformation where appropriate.

Note: The Steel Gaians are also likely very prominent in the infiltration of Awakened AIs in the GNE, and either deliberately or inadvertently responsible for the sentient 'awakening' of PS-made robotic systems and androids.

Motif: A stylized white(or grey-silver) tree on a green circle, with a Shemarrian star imposed on the center. The Steel Gaians have adopted green-colored armor and dress in imitation of their ‘hosts’.

a)Origins:
Splinter-tribe, made primarily of early dissidents from the Hawkmoons. The Steel Gaians have since attracted misfits and orphans from other Tribes.

b)Where First Encountered
Rifts Earth, Greater New England territories.

c)Tribe Size
Modest: 20,000 members

d)Tribe Organization
Meritocracy; Steel Gaians rise through the ranks by being recognized for hard work and innovative designs, akin to the old Renaissance guild masterworks systems, where apprentices achieved mastery status by producing exemplary works.

e)Tribal Composition
Tinkers constitute 40% of the tribe, followed next by Warriors 30%, while the remaining 30% are a mix of Males, Acolites, and NeShemar.

f) Highest Caste Class
Tinker; the mechanics run the tribe.

g) Gender Division
85% female, 15% male.

h) Home Environment
Temperate Earth-like worlds; the Steel Gaians currently have little presence off Rifts Earth, save for a few members who have hitched rides with GNE interdimensional parties or joined megaversal scouting/adventuring parties.

i)Technology Level
Equivalent to Rifts Earth. The Steel Gaians exhibit few, if any, of the proprietary technologies of the Reformed Shemarrian Nation, but do copy and siphon off know-how from their ‘hosts’.

j) Relations with Outsiders:
Friendly and open; the Steel Gaians are the Shemarrian face of trade and public relations to their neighbors, creating and selling ‘genuine Shemarrian’ goods to outsiders(not that the products aren’t good, but they have more aesthetic embellishments and far less cutting-edge tech than the Reformed Shemarrian Nation issues to its own people). There are, however, some subjects(particularly cultural) that are taboo to outsiders.

k)Relations with Other ‘Shemarrians:
Open; though the Steel Gaians are noticeably more prickly around those who have been critical of them in the past. The Steel Gaians have contact with a number of other fringe tribes, including Clan Motron, with whom they trade.

l) Purpose
Profit; the Steel Gaians seem unique among Shemarrian tribes in their desire to make MONEY. Though they mainly make it by doing engineering work(contract or commission), Steel Gaians also hire themselves out as security and mercenaries.

m) Preferred Mode of Combat
Blitzkrieg; the Steel Gaians favor combined arms attacks, only FAST. Just like their host nation. Showers of artillery and air strikes presage fast ground units hitting hard and fast before the infantry closes, using long range fire to pick apart an enemy before they can come into melee range. Steel Gaians often volunteer to act as mobile units and mechanized cavalry when the GNEAS goes to war, especially against the Splugorth.

n) Unique Attributes
*Warmounts:
The Steel Gaians started out with the baseline(canon) Warmounts of the old Shemarrian Nation(none of the new designs), but, even though they live under the thumb and watchful eye of the GNE, the Anvil Fists have had both opportunity and privacy enough to start hammering together their own unique Warmounts. These creations are the epitome of Frankensteeding, amalgamations of Shemarrian tech, Paladin Steel hardware, scavenged Kittani vehicles, and common North American robot designs. While some of these are obviously pure robots, others, the Steel Gaians have managed to convince their hosts, are cyborgs created using certain parts of various monstrous critters(like Peryton) that the EShemar have helped GNErs hunt and exterminate. This story fits well with the perceived stories of Shemarrian tech, but sometimes it works TOO well, as some GNErs are reminded uneasily of slave cyborgs or biowizardry at work.

o) Prosperity
Successful----The Steel Gaians are rather successful, banking on the Shemarrian reputation, bounties from adventuring, contract work, and scavenging, and growing respect for their workmanship. They make enough to fortify their communities, arm their members, and still have enough surplus to help out their immediate neighbors.

p) Chart P: Origin Tribe
The Steel Gaians are made of primarily of early dissenters from the Hawkmoons. They have since collected walkouts from other Tribes and Eccentrics on walkabout.

[taalismn]

http://syfycity.tumblr.com/post/78256453021/desert-fellows-by-highmoon

I can easily see this as something Clan Motron or some other eccentric Shemarrian Tribe would cobble together.

[DhAkael]

http://syfycity.tumblr.com/post/78256453021/desert-fellows-by-highmoon

I can easily see this as something Clan Motron or some other eccentric Shemarrian Tribe would cobble together.

Saw that a couple of days ago on unflugodefontones.
*grin* been admiring the Kusanagi Motoko's so been distracted.

P.S. I'll have the Flamewing 'colours' done sometime this week.

[taalismn]

http://syfycity.tumblr.com/post/78256453021/desert-fellows-by-highmoon

I can easily see this as something Clan Motron or some other eccentric Shemarrian Tribe would cobble together.

Saw that a couple of days ago on unflugodefontones.
*grin* been admiring the Kusanagi Motoko's so been distracted.

P.S. I'll have the Flamewing 'colours' done sometime this week.

Lots of great stuff there. But the recent GitS series? Motoko looks BUTCH.

[DhAkael]

Can't say I've seen the latest of the GitS series; I kinda lost track after series 2 of 'Stand Alone Complex'.
That bad huh?
*shake head* Motoko was always a fashion hound and ALWAYS was fem (in manga at least) even when in a -ahem- TRANSinstional state (re; end book 1).

[taalismn]

Can't say I've seen the latest of the GitS series; I kinda lost track after series 2 of 'Stand Alone Complex'.
That bad huh?
*shake head* Motoko was always a fashion hound and ALWAYS was fem (in manga at least) even when in a -ahem- TRANSinstional state (re; end book 1).

The whole 'ascension into the net' thing struck me as hokey.
It gets worse in the Motoko solo arc, where Shirow goes Instrumentality on us(Botu shows up in virtually the last panels, and it's implied that the government seems to be using spiritual mediums to keep track of her).

Now, the idea of the Wargoddesses eventually possibly ascending to some sort of immaterial technogoddesshood....(shakes head).

(Somewhere Jack O'Neil looks at his be-spectacled partner)
"What?"

[kronos]

After much waiting, and being sick the last 3 weeks.. The Trogladilium! WITH ART!!! Provided by Taalismn! There will be another variant or two coming..

EcoS-K-50 Trogladilium
http://i408.photobucket.com/albums/pp16 ... 340e03.jpg

The Trogladilium was proposed by the Skull Crusher tribe, and commissioned construction from the Horrorwoods due to their expertise in insect-like warmounts, as a Shemarrian equivalent to an APC and heavy assault vehicle, only as an incredibly large version of a terrestrial pillbug. Well armoured, the trogladilium is able to shrug off a lot of damage as it makes its way to the target to unload its cargo of 10 Shemarrian warriors. Behind the armour plating hides a surprising array of weapons with a uniquely designed, and very quick, system that lifts the armour plating, revealing the weapons to unleash destruction before retracting again and covering the weapon, which takes mere milliseconds, which is necessary in its secondary mode of movement.
The trogladilium is able to curl up into a ball and roll quite quickly, smashing its way through obstacles, or blasting them with its concealed weaponry before uncurling to unleash its deadly cargo. This ball mode is significantly faster than its normal walking speed, but it loses the ability to crawl over and around most terrain.
The carried Shemarrians are housed in pods, five on each side, behind armour plates, where they are linked to the trogladilium's sensors, and using its gyroscopes so when its in ball mode none suffer from disorientation from the rapid spinning they go through, and communication systems to keep up to date of the tactical situation.

Armed with an alternating array of lasers, mini-missiles, fire-linked railguns and a brace of 6 short range launchers fitted in two launchers of three shots each, gives the tragladilium heavy strike capability, besides just plowing through walls. The lasers are unique in that they don't have traditional barrels, but more of an emitter, this allows them to fire in any direction. The plates covering the laser emitters can lift up from the front or back, but only in normal mode. In ball mode they only open from the front, but can still fire to the sides. This allows the trogladilium to fire in any direction while walking, including behind, to the sides and above it, but only forward and to the sides while rolling. The railguns, while in ball mode remain recessed so that only the tips of the barrels are exposed when the armour panel lifts, this limits their field of fire to fixed forward, but while in normal mode, the weapons extend out to allow greater field of fire in the forward arc. The mini missiles can be launched at any target around the trogladilium, even behind it, but first launch forward before turning, if loaded with smart mini missiles instead of dumb missiles. The short range missiles can only be launched in normal mode as in ball mode doesn't allow enough time for the missiles to launch before requiring the panel to close before it moves out of position.
The internal structure is very reinforced and compartmentalized, and space is filled with a special fluid that absorbs thermal and kinetic energy, combined with the heavy armour with thermo-kinetic armour properties. This gives observers the impression that the trogladilium is a heavy cyborg warmount as any damage significantly enough to damage it will cause this fluid to leak out. This fluid is also impregnated with a heavier version of the Shermarrian cybernanite repair system.
With sensors well armoured and hidden around the trogladilium is hard to sneak up on, always seeing what is around it, feeding information to its carried warriors and any other units in the area. A number of laser targeters and designators allow the trogladilium to paint multiple targets for heavier artillery and missile strikes from friendly aircraft. A powerful, but short ranged jammer allows it to keep all local opponents in confusion, while its own powerful comm system will keep friendly units in constant contact.

The head, equipped with a set of 6 primary sensor eyes, four of which have lasers, and a mouth with vibro mandibles for tearing into armour and fortifications. The secondary purpose is to gather raw materials to recharge the cybernanite repair system and to feed the small nanite factory which is used to replenish its railgun ammunition supply and even those of any carried Shemmarian warriors.
Instead of carrying Shemarrians, the trogladilium can carry ten smaller versions. These mini trogladiliums aren't as well armed, but with their heavy armour lets them absorb damage as they provide fire for their parent.

Trogladiliums seem to have kinship with Berserkers, charging into battle with them. Although in normal mode, they're slower, they easily catch up as they roll in. A favoured tactic of Skullcrushers is to let groups of trogladiliums filled with berserkers roll in, or be air dropped in ball mode to smash up a few targets amongst the enemy, then quickly disgorge the berserkers in the middle of the enemy's confusion.

Type: EcoS-K-50 Trogladilium
Class: Robotic Warmount, Personel Carrier, Heavy Weapons
Crew: None; robot intelligence
10 Shemarrian passengers or 10 mini-trogladilium, or a mix of the two.
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 1000
Head 400
Pod Cover (10) 400
Reinforced Pod (10) 300
Weapon Cover (10) 400
Shemarrian Railguns (6) 70
Eyes (6) 150 ea
Mandible & Mouth 250
Legs (30) 250 each
Height: 16 ft 
Width: 30 ft 
Length: 100 ft
Weight: 16,000 lbs
Cargo: Small space inside pods for warriors to carry sidearms. Instead of a Shemarrian or mini trogladilium can carry cargo with same volume as either.
Physical Strength: Equivalent to Robotic P.S. of 30
Powerplant: Nuclear w/ 20 year energy life
Speed: (Running) 60 MPH, 200 MPH is ball form.
(Leaping) Not possible
(Flying) Not possible
(Space) Not possible
(Underwater) Limited to running along the bottom at 16 MPH, maximum depth of 3,200 ft. 
Market Cost: Exclusive to the Ecotroz-Shemar
Systems of Note:
Destroying the head will remove the 6 primary eyes and 4 eye lasers, but the trogladilium will continue to function. However it won't be able to replenish used stores of ammunition or the cybernanite repair system. The trogladilium will suffer a -2 to all attacks as it will rely on its other sensors.
The legs are difficult to strike as they are under the bulk of the body, protected by an armoured skirt, requiring an aimed strike at -8. The trogladilium can maintain full speed with up to half its legs destroyed. If it only has 10 legs left, then it moves at half speed, at less than 8 legs, the trogladilium is sluggish, speed is reduced to 5 mph and starts dragging its body.
The railguns are only targetable when in normal mode where they extend more so that they are able to pivot to aim at targets above and to the sides. Attacks to strike suffer -4. In ball mode only the very ends of the barrels are visible as the cover opens just long enough for the weapons to fire then snaps shut, taking milliseconds, making it virtually impossible to strike.
The pod covers are part of the whole main body, but can be targeted. The pod interior, which is reinforced, can only be targeted once the cover has be destroyed, or while the cover is open when the carried Shemarrian or mini trogladilium is exiting, which takes only 2 seconds as the pod has a system that pushes the carried Shemarrian out. -4 to strike the interior pod. The carried Shemarrian or mini trogladilium is able to act at the time it exits as it is linked to the trogladilium and has up the moment data of targets outside and uses this information to target opponents immediately upon exiting. This grants the exiting Shemarrian or mini trogladilium a +1 to initiative and attack rolls for the first attack upon exiting as they surprise any opponents close by.


Full optical systems, laser targeting, passive nightvision, telescopic vision(x10 normal robot optics acuity, thanks to the advanced optics in the giant ‘eye’), 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. 

*Bionic Cybernanite Repair Systems---ALL trogladilium 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, only upgraded. These systems repair 6d6 MD per hour, and can repair 250 MDC before needing material stocks to convert to MD repair material. 

*Thermo-Kinetic Armour - Using stolen plans from the Naruni, the trogladilium is layered in thick armour coated in thermo-kinetic armour. Thermal sensors only have 01-25% chance of detecting the trogladilium. Normal fires deal 5% of normal damage only after being exposed for more than 10 minutes. Mega-damage fire, heat, plasma and magic fire deal half damage. S.D.C. kinetic energy attacks do no damage, while M.D kinetic energy attacks deal half damage. Note low speed kinetic impact from punches at bionic, robotic and supernatural strength do full damage.

*Internal Fluid - The fluid that fills and protects the inside of the trogladilium aids in protecting the trogladilium. Damage from explosions, rams, falls, low speed kinetic impacts such as hits from bionic, robotic and supernatural strength have damage halved. This fluid is also impregnated with the cybernanite repair nanites. If the trogladilim suffers a hit of 100 M.D., some of this fluid will spill, but will seal hull breaches. The added benefit of any spilled fluid allows any Shemarrian to scoop it up and apply it to themselves, repairing 3d6 M.D once before the nanites are inert. The nanites in the spilt fluid will remain active for about 5 minutes if not used before going inert.

*Jamming Suite - This is the same system as found on male Shemarrians, only with a range of 1000 feet instead of 2000 feet as the male Shemarrian system. Same bonuses otherwise. 65% chance jamming enemy transmissions. Jammed missiles suffer -5 to strike, or -7 to directed missiles.

*Laser Designators - The trogladilium has multiple laser designators which it can use for its own weapons and 6 which can be used to aid any friendly smart weapons. +1 to strike on any aimed strikes and for its 6 short range missiles. Also grants +1 to any friendly Shemarrian smart weapons on up to 6 targets within 2000 feet of the trogladilium.

*Internal Nanite Factory - For every 20 lbs of materials 'eaten' by the trogladilium, the nanite factory can manufacture 50 railgun rounds or recharge the cybernanite repair system to repair 1d6 M.D. After battles, observers have seen trogladiliums devouring fallen opponents that Shemarrian Tinkerers have already stripped of useful components or designated for scrap.

*Molecular Adhesive & Magnetic Pads on Legs - The legs of the trogladilium are designed like an insects, and have molecular adhesive pads as well as magnetic systems to allow it to climb up almost any surface that will support its weight. This allows the trogladilium to climb up rock surfaces or even up the sides of buildings then to leap off and curl up to drop onto targets below.

*Pod Launch System - The passenger pods of the trogladilium can launch a carried Shemmarian or mini trogladilium up to 30 feet away if so desired. This is especially useful during air drops, or to launch a Shemarrian behind any opponents almost within melee range of the trogladilium, putting the launched Shemarrian in a flanking position of the target.

Weapons Systems:
1)Laser Emitters (3 x 2) These laser emitters can fire in any direction not blocked by armour panels, and set up in pairs, able to fire at the same target, or individual targets per set. Although they have a little less range than other warmount lasers, they're damage is respectable, and without an obvious barrel, opponents attempting to dodge are at a slight disadvantage.
Range: 2,500 ft
Damage 5d6 MD per blast ea, or 1d6x10 for both striking the same target.
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited
Note: Targets attempting to dodge the laser blasts suffer a -2 to dodge, and opponents with auto dodge don't get an auto dodge, but can still attempt to dodge, but at -1.
In ball mode can not fire behind or above the trogladilium, but can fire forward and to the sides.

2) Shemarrian Railguns (3 x 2) - Twin mountings of Shemarrian railguns. They can fire individually or at the same target. During ball mode can only fire in a fixed forward position. In normal mode can fire forward, and have a 30 degree up and 80 degrees to either side.
Range: 6000 ft
Damage: 2d6x10 ea or 4d6x10 for both cannons together
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: 1000 rds per cannon.

3) Mini Missile launchers (2 x 8 ) - Two sets of four launchers gives the trogladilium some heavy distance striking power.
Range: Typically 1 mile
Damage: Varies by missile, typically plasma or armour piercing
Rate of Fire: In ball mode each launcher can only fire 1, so a volley up to 8 per attack. In normal mode each set can launch a volley of eight.
Payload: 16 missiles per launcher, 256 total.

4) Short Range Missiles (2 x 3) - Two sets of three short range missiles gives the trogladilium a long range strike. These missiles can be tied into the Shemarrian tactical net and designated to fire at a target painted by Shemarrian scouts or a target picked by the trogladilium, depending on missile priorities.
Range: varies by missile, typically 3 to 5 miles
Damage: varies by missile, typically high explosive, fragmentation (light), armour piercing or plasma, or whatever is available.
Rate of Fire: Up to 3 missiles per volley.
Payload: 6 missiles

5) Eye Lasers - Four out of 6 of the trogladilium's eyes are equipped with lasers, with each able to target a different target or all four together.
Range: 2000 feet
Damage: 3d6 single blast, 12d6 or 1d6x12 for all four at same target.
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

6) Vibro Mandibles - The mandibles of the trogladilium are short, but powerful, able to tear through thick armour and fortifications with ease.
Range: Melee
Damage: 5d6+4

7) Ram - The trogladilium is well armoued and will use its bulk to smash into things.
Range: Melee
Damage: 5d6+10 in normal mode. In ball mode add +2d6 per 20 mph above 80 mph. The trogladilium takes no damage from rams it initiates as it can shift and angle its armour plates and internal sections, combined with the internal fluid to best protect itself while smashing its target. In the event the trogladilium is being air dropped, add +1d6 MD per 100 feet it drops. At heights over 1000 feet, the trogladilium will take damage from the height above 1000 feet. For example, if dropped from 1200 feet, it will only suffer damage for 200 feet, but even that is halved from its armour, internal fluid, and design.

Programming:
The Ecotroz have installed robotic AIs, then infected the matrix with a low-level Ecotroz sentience. The Trogladilium has an IQ of 11 and possesses an animalistic personality akin to that of a wolverine; low cunning, predatory, and bloodthirsty in combat, but usually lack the patience in stalking, preferring to charging in, unleashing laser, missile and railgun bursts as it closes and slamming into a large target before disgorging its carried warriors then continuing to shoot and slam and bite opponents close by, leading charges of Shemarrian warriors.
Typically has the following in addition to normal Monstrex programming: 
Electronic Countermeasures 50% +5%/level
Navigation: Land 60% +5%/level
The Ecotroz entity can also pick up one Secondary skill at levels 2, 6, and 12 of experience, though the nature of the Trogladilium’s intelligence and design is such that it is limited to skill selections from Espionage(Detect Ambush, Detect Concealment), Wilderness(Track Humanoids, Track Animals, Hunting, Identify Plants and Fruits)
Actions/Attacks Per Melee: 6
Initiative +2 (+1 from the Ecotroz entity for a total of +3)
Dodge +4(+8 when in ball mode in excess of 75 MPH)
Strike +2 (+4 w/ ranged weaponry) 
Parry +3
Roll +4 (+8 in ball mode)
Pull Punch/Bite +4
Critical Strike on natural 19 or 20 with vibro mandibles.
+8 for grappling or wrestling attacks. 
Bite 4d6 MD (once something is grabbed by its mandibles at +2 to strike.
Leg Stab 1d6 each, up to 6 can be used. Only useable when climbing up onto a target.

Note: The Ecotroz intelligence fragment inhabiting the ‘bot gives the Trogladilium an aura and behavior more befitting a sentient being than a robot. 

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, but will have to go dormant for 4d6 hours after such exertion.
Susceptible to Exorcism and Banish spells, but are +6 to save against such spells, +1 at levels 4, 8, and 12 of experience, and becoming IMMUNE at level 14 and up. Such Banishment causes the ‘bot to revert to its default robot programming. (OPTION: Ecotroz may become IMMUNE to Exorcism and Banishment with experience, and NEW BUILT EShemar constructs are immune to this)

Options:

Blood Rider Variant - The Blood Riders have a few trogladiliums in their inventory, only theirs are modified with plasma fields similar to their Zealots and similar units. While the field is active, the Trogladilium is immune to plasma and heat attacks, including magical. The magnetic field reduces particle beam weapons by 25%. All ram and melee attacks, or anything it grapples or climbs onto something.
A favoured tactic of the Blood Riders is to air drop the trogladiliums with their plasma fields active, so they look like meteors, then as it closes to its target, it will release its carried Zealots or mini trogladiliums also equipped with plasma fields, looking like smaller meteors or pieces of the larger one breaking off.

Electrical Shock System - The outer layer is fitted with electrical nodes to electrify the surface against anything trying to hit it with melee attacks. Adds +3d6 electrical damage to all melee strikes or anyone striking the trogladilium with a metal weapon or unarmed strikes like punches or kicks.

Lightning Bug - This variant replaces the trogladilium's passenger pods with single shot short range missile launchers, and swaps out one laser and railgun set with two additional mini missile launchers, giving the Thunderer 10 short range missiles, all only launch-able in normal mode, and 8 8-shot mini missiles, each with 16 missiles per launcher, bringing the total mini missile count to 512.

Thunderer - This variant removes the passenger pods and short range missile launchers and in mounts FOUR Goddess Hammers, two on each side. These weapons can only be deployed while not in ball mode, and usually deployed well ahead of other Shemarrian forces to avoid any friendly fire. These thunderer trogladiliums seem to be even more bloodthirsty than their normal kin as they will close to point blank range and climb on targets and unleash all four Goddess Hammers into a single target. There is no such meaning as overkill to these trogladiliums, and they gleefully charge into combat unleashing these weapons.
‘Goddess Hammer’ Gatling Cannon (4) -These are the same as the Wolf's Path Goddess Hammer gatling cannons, however the barrels are shortened so they fit inside the trogladilium's frame while it rolls into combat.. 
Range: 2,000 ft
Damage: 2d4x10 MD per round, 4d6x10 MD for a three shot burst, 8d6MDx10 for a six shot burst(!)
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: 820 shot drum
Note: Two can hit the same target in any direction. Although 4 can be directed up or down and fired as a single attack.


Mini Trogladilium
These are smaller versions of the trogladilium, used to protect it or as a force multiplier. Well armoured for their size, but not as well armed. Usually armed with energy weapons and a few mini missiles to save on weight and space for ammunition. Some minis are stripped of most of their weapons and fitted with a single large weapon or other special system, depending on the mission.

Type: EcoS-UNCV11 Mini Trogladilium
Class: Robotic Drone
Crew: None; robot intelligence
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 250
Head 90
Eyes (4) 50 ea
Mandible & Mouth 50
Legs (16) 50 each
Height: 3 ft 
Width: 4 ft 
Length: 10 ft
Weight: 800 lbs
Cargo: none
Physical Strength: Equivalent to Robotic P.S. of 20
Powerplant: Nuclear w/ 20 year energy life
Speed: (Running) 70 MPH, 250 MPH is ball form.
(Leaping) Not possible
(Flying) Not possible
(Space) Not possible
(Underwater) Limited to running along the bottom at 10 MPH, maximum depth of 1,200 ft. 
Market Cost: Exclusive to the Ecotroz-Shemar
Systems of Note:
Destroying the head will remove the 4 primary eyes and 2 eye lasers, but the mini trogladilium will continue to function and suffer a -4 to all attacks as it will rely on its other sensors.
The legs are difficult to strike as they are under the bulk of the body, protected by an armoured skirt, requiring an aimed strike at -8. The mini trogladilium can maintain full speed with up to half its legs destroyed. If it only has 6 legs, the trogladilium is sluggish, speed is reduced to 5 mph and starts dragging its body.

Full optical systems, laser targeting, passive nightvision, telescopic vision(x10 normal robot optics accuity, thanks to the advanced optics in the giant ‘eye’), 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. 

*Optional Bionic Cybernanite Repair Systems---Not all mini trogladilium 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 50 MDC before needing material stocks to convert to MD repair material. Only about 10% have this feature, and usually those are fitted with some other special weapon or equipment for specific mission profiles.

*Thermo-Kinetic Armour - Using stolen plans from the Naruni, the mini trogladilium is layered in thick armour coated in thermo-kinetic armour. Thermal sensors only have 01-25% chance of detecting the trogladilium. Normal fires deal 5% of normal damage only after being exposed for more than 10 minutes. Mega-damage fire, heat, plasma and magic fire deal half damage. S.D.C. kinetic energy attacks do no damage, while M.D kinetic energy attacks deal half damage. Note low speed kinetic impact from punches at bionic, robotic and supernatural strength do full damage.

*Internal Fluid - The mini trogladilium has the same internal fluid as its larger counterpart, however it is not impregnated with nanites unless the cybernanite repair system was also installed, which is only about 10% of all mini trogladiliums.

*Molecular Adhesive & Magnetic Pads on Legs - The legs of the mini trogladilium are designed like an insects, and have molecular adhesive pads as well as magnetic systems to allow it to climb up almost any surface that will support its weight. This allows the mini trogladilium to climb up rock surfaces or even up the sides of buildings then to leap off and curl up to drop onto targets below.

1)Laser Emitters (2) These laser emitters can fire in any direction not blocked by armour panels, and set up in pairs, able to fire at the same target, or individual targets per set. Although they have a little less range than other warmount lasers, they're damage is respectable, and without an obvious barrel, opponents attempting to dodge are at a slight disadvantage.
Range: 2,500 ft
Damage 5d6 MD per blast ea, or 1d6x10 for both striking the same target.
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited
Note: Targets attempting to dodge the laser blasts suffer a -2 to dodge, and opponents with auto dodge don't get an auto dodge, but can still attempt to dodge, but at -1.
In ball mode can not fire behind or above the trogladilium, but can fire forward and to the sides.

2) Mini Missile launchers (2) - The mini trogladilium has two mini missile launchers.
Range: Typically 1 mile
Damage: Varies by missile, typically plasma or armour piercing
Rate of Fire: Volleys up to 4
Payload: 4 missiles each launcher.

3) Eye Lasers - Two out of four of the trogladilium's eyes are equipped with lasers, with each able to target a different target or both together.
Range: 2000 feet
Damage: 2d6 MD single blast, 4d6 MD for both at same target.
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

4) Vibro Mandibles - The mandibles of the trogladilium are short, but powerful, able to tear through thick armour and fortifications with ease.
Range: Melee
Damage: 2d6+3

7) Ram - The mini trogladilium is well armoued and will use its bulk to smash into things.
Range: Melee
Damage: 3d6+5 in normal mode. In ball mode add +2d6 per 20 mph above 80 mph. The trogladilium takes no damage from rams it initiates as it can shift and angle its armour plates and internal sections, combined with the internal fluid to best protect itself while smashing its target. In the event the mini trogladilium is being air dropped, add +1d6 MD per 100 feet it drops. At heights over 500 feet, the mini trogladilium will take damage from the height above 500 feet. For example, if dropped from 1200 feet, it will only suffer damage for 700 feet, but even that is halved from its armour, internal fluid, and design.

Programming:
Mini trogladiliums are VERY rarely infected with an Ecotroz fragment, used more as drones and force multipliers.
Navigation: Land 60%
Detect Ambush 75%
Detect Concealment 65%
Actions/Attacks Per Melee: 4
Initiative +2
Dodge +4 (+8 when in ball mode in excess of 75 MPH)
Strike +2 (+4 w/ ranged weaponry) 
Parry +3
Roll +4 (+8 in ball mode)
Pull Punch/Bite +4
Critical Strike on natural 19 or 20 with vibro mandibles.
+8 for grappling or wrestling attacks. 
Leg Stab 1d4 each, up to 4 can be used. Only useable when climbing up onto a target

Options:
Some mini trogladiliums are fitted with other weapons or systems, usually removing the mini missile systems in the process. Below are some examples.
1) Back Weapons - A modular back mount, with the weapon designed to split into several parts that fit under its armoured panels except in certain cases, the mini trogladilium is unable to roll.
A) Shemarrian 6000 Rail Gun - This is the standard Shemarrian 6000 Rail Gun, designed to break down into 4 pieces so it can be hidden under armoured panels as the mini rolls around to new locations. These minis are used in the rolls of snipers, quickly moving to a firing location then laying down long ranged covering fire.
Range: 4000 ft
Damage 2d6x10 MD per round
Rate of Fire: ECHH, cannot fire bursts.
Payload: 100 rounds

B) Most other weapon pods that fit on the Monstrex and similar warmounts

2) Electronic Counter-Measure and Communication Sensor with Blackbox - This is identical to the male EShemarrian system, allowing the Shemarrians to spread their communications and jamming capabilities when there isn't enough males or services of Ghost Riders not available. Gains skill Electronic Countermeasures 50%.

3) Shield Generator - These mini trogladiliums are unable to roll into a ball, have all weapons except eye lasers and mandibles removed and used to setting up defensive positions or to cover rescue operations. They generate a force field with a 30 foot radius with 300 MDC that regenerates at a rate of 10 MD every 10 minutes. The force fields are designed to allow Shemarrian weapons fired from within the field out, but not in, letting defenders fire at outside targets.

[taalismn]

Glad you're on the mend...and glad to this big 'ol tumbleweed roll into town!

[taalismn]

(Based on/inspired by a description in the Robotech Crossover thread by guardiandashi of several of his long-ago PCs/NPCs)

Clan Alecia(Fringe Tribe)

“What would Alecia do in a situation like this?”
“Kick ass and take their stuff?”
“Right!”
“So I assume we’re breaking into the police impound yard and taking back our ship?”
“And then some, for our trouble!”

Clan Alecia can be considered less a tribe and more an extended fanclub, inspired by the exploits of Shemarrian folk heroines Alecia and Megarea, two near-legendary AIs(or cyborgs, depending on which versions of the tales one hears) who supposedly escaped from the grip of the Dark One(ARCHIE-3) and made their way to a series of great adventures traveling the megaverse. While most mainstream Shemarrians doubt the pair ever truly existed(hard data on the activities of the Dark One being hard to come by, given the violence of the Shemarrian Civil War and A3’s paranoia about disclosing his secrets), the stories have a certain enduring appeal to the young Shemarrian culture. A few Shemar and NeShemar have taken the legends to heart and formed their own small society, hoping to live as their legends did.
What makes the Alecians so freakin’ scary and obliges other Shemarrians to take them seriously is the fact that they have access to some fairly advanced technolgy for a Fringe Tribe. Apparently their efforts to emulate their heroines have paid off, because at some point in their travels, the Alecians stumbled across some seriously advanced technology. They’ve since been happily applying that technology to themselves, and, weaponized, on anybody who becomes their enemy.
To the best of anybody’s knowledge, no Alecian has actually and verifiably MET either Alecia or Megarea, though several of the tribe’s eldest members relate ‘close calls’(“I was on the same ship as they were and I remember vaguely seeing...” or “I was in New Sparta just HOURS after those two blew up the local governor’s mansion...”) . Nor is it known if Alecia or Megarea are aware of Clan Alecia’s existence. Nor is it known what might happen if the two groups were to meet(that alone is the subject of some debate and betting amongst the Wayfinders).

Motif: Two female faces in profile, one superimposed inside the other. The outer face is in black, the inner in yellow-gold.

a)Origins:
Splinter---Ghost Riders. The Alecians retain inner persona sub-routines(‘umbras’) modeled on what is known of Alecia and Megarea, giving each Alecian an inner ‘Alee and Meg’ to advise them(though most Alecians will select one or the other as their predominant ‘inner voice’).

b)Where First Encountered
Rifts Earth, but fleetingly. They’ve since moved offworld, seeking to follow the lead of their heroines. They mainly send back scouts to Rifts Earth to follow up on reports of Alecia and Megarea sightings.

c)Tribe Size
Small---1,900 members

d)Tribe Organization
Anarchy----The tribe seems organized by mutual consensus on ‘what would Alecia do?’. This is helped by their use of umbra patterned on persona-sims of Alecia and Megarea. Even the Ghost Riders aren’t entirely sure how this all works for the Alecians, but there have been no reported problems in organization and consensus thus far.

e)Tribal Composition
Elites---Clan Alecia’s homebrewed Elite classes consitute a full 38% of the tribe, followed by Warriors at 30%, 6% Males, and the remaining 26% a fairly even mix of Warchiefs, Berserkers, Tinkers, Acolites, NeShemar, and Oresheme.

f) Highest Caste Class
Elites---Most notably the Meganna and the Aleta. Note that ‘caste class’ has less actual organizational bearing in the near-anarchaic social structure of the Alecians. It’s more a denotation of how far one is willing to go to live ‘in the way of Alecia and Megarea’.

g) Gender Division
96% Female, 4% Male

h) Home Environment
Nomadic Space Dwellers---Clan Alecians have tried to adopt the same sort of wandering lifestyle as their heroines. The clan operates several large space cruisers as their primary base of operations.

i)Technology Level
Supertech---The Alecians seem to have acquired a very advanced knowledge of gravitic and mass manipulation technologies.
The Alecians use a mix of canonical and common Warmount types, but modified with their supertech. Their ship are also fairly common Shemarrian Star Nation types, again modified with more advanced gravitic propulsion and weaponry.

j) Relations with Outsiders:
Indifferent. Unless you right out admit to idolizing the legendary Alecia and Megarea, you’ll be ignored as ignorant outsiders.

k)Relations with Other ‘Shemarrians’
Open; the Alecians trade with the other Tribes as they encounter them, provided they aren’t snubbed or heckled, and show a proper respect to Alecia and Megarea. Those who do not are treated as unbelievers and idiots. The Alecians seem to get along best with the Wayfinders(who have collected quite a record of Alecia and Megarea stories and accounts), the Wolf’s Path(who also repeat and spread many of the tales), and the Blood Riders(who regard the stories as inspiration of the glory to be had). They’re decidedly cool towards the Lost Eclipse, who derides the Alecians as ‘self-delusional fangirls’ and ‘chasing butterflies’.

l) Purpose
Pleasure---The Alecians live to sample the pleasures of the megaverse, from finding booty to fighting the good fight for the good guys. Meeting their heroines is a close secondary goal.

m) Preferred Mode of Combat
Blitzkrieg---The Alecians use a combined arms approach to combat, using both land and air attacks to shock and awe opponents.

n) Unique Attributes
*Unique Technologies---The Alecians apparently managed to acquire some rather advanced technology and successfully reverse-engineered it. Clan Alecia seems to have acquired prodoinately gravitic- and mass-manipulation technologies.
*Elites---The Alecians have developed their own Elite warriors, based on tales of Alecia and Megarea. The most prominent is the Meganna, a transforming-frame cyberhumanoid that can alter forms between an attactive female and a reduced-scale Monstrex. It’s rumored that the Alecians may have had some help with the Meganna from the Wolf’s Path Tribe, who have fielded their own ‘were-Elite’ in the form of the Channide, and who also often repeat the Alecia and Megarea tales in their camps. The Aleta is a more humanoid, but no less exotic and powerful, modification of the Warrior class, and supposedly uses mass-manipulation to power up and armor itself.

o) Prosperity
Self-Sufficient---The Alecians make enough and have enough that they can meet their modest needs, but leaves little left over for large scale trading or extended campaigns.

p) Chart P: Origin Tribe
Ghost Riders(The mainstream Ghost Riders are still shaking their heads about this one)

[taalismn]

EcoS-K-52 ‘Slingtail’ Warmount

http://i408.photobucket.com/albums/pp164/taalismn/img432_zpsdf7ef3cb.jpg

“Whatever the Shemarrians are digging up out of that place, they’re welcome to it! I have no longer any interest in their doings after they boulderized the Baron, his Guard, and half our war party. I would gladly face lasers and rail guns, but trying to dodge giant hunks of rock and garbage falling from the sky is NOT my idea of honorable battle.”

The Slingtail is a ‘utility’ Warmount in the same concept-theme as the Monst-Rex “Pack Mule”, Monstropede and Cyclopede, and is not typically found in the front lines, though it perhaps best known to outsiders for its slinging of heavy objects, catapult-style, at opponents.
The Slingtail bears obvious resemblance to the Coalition States’ CR-005 Scorpion-Skull Walker, and it is likely the first of these Warmounts were based on captured examples of the CS machine, or pirated technical data. The Slingtail has the multiple legs, low-slung body, forward claws, and long articulated tail of the Coalition design, but there the resemblance ends. The Slingtail is ridden like an animal, rather than crewed like a vehicle(though the rider can have the protection of an erectable safety cage), the Slingtail has usable mouth parts, and the tail is much longer and ends in a large grasping claw, rather than a gun pod.
The Slingtail operates as a mobile crane, using its claws and mandibles to cut up debris and salvage, while its tail grasper grabs and hoists. The Slingtail is considered to be smart enough to operate autonomously on simple tasks such as lifting and carrying, or demolishing all of an object/structure, but is more commonly directly minded by a rider.
Though not a combat machine on a par with other Warmounts, the Slingtail does have more than ample self-defense capability(important when defending a worksite from resident monsters or opportunistic bandits). The Slingtail gets its moniker from its ability to perform a ‘snap-throw’ with its tail, heaving heavy objects on ballistic trajectories, thus turning any large battlefield debris into a potential weapon.
Slingtails are generally regarded as second-echelon Warmounts, assigned to labor parties, salvage groups, and support companies. They find use in demolition, salvage, construction, and ordnance loading. They are occasionally used to material raids to grab and transport the spoils of war. They are typically assigned to Tinkers, unproven new Warriors, Male scavenger parties, and NeShemar.
Slingtails have appeared in the ranks of ALL the known Tribes, though the largest numbers have appeared with the Horrorwoods, Ghost Riders, Darkwaters, and Wayfinders.

Type: EcoS-K-52 Slingtail
Class: Robotic Warmount, Utility
Crew: None; robot intelligence
1 rider/pilot, and room for 1 passenger
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 260
Head 190
Foreclaws(2) 120 each
Legs(6) 120 each
Tail Segments (6, including claw) 100 each
(Optional) Cockpit Cage 100
Height: With tail fully raised, the Slingtail can reach a height of about 25 ft
Width: 18 ft
Length: With the tail fully extended back, the Slingtail stretches 36 ft
Weight: 14 tons
Cargo: Small space inside/beside the saddle-seat for a few personal possessions and sidearms.
Physical Strength: Equivalent to Robotic P.S. of 48 for purposes of the claw punching/carrying/lifting. The tail crane can lift up to 12,600 lbs.
Powerplant: Nuclear w/ 20 year energy life
Speed: (Running) 55 MPH
(Leaping) Not possible
(Flying) Not possible
(Space) Not possible
(Underwater) Can scuttle along the bottom at a maximum of 12 MPH, maximum depth of 2,000 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.

*Bionic Cybernanite Repair Systems---ALL Slingtails 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.

*Molecular/Magnetic Grip Tail---In addition to having four gripping ‘fingers’, the Slingtail’s signature tail has a large molecular/magnetic adhesion head that helps grip lifted objects. It’s also rumored that by reverseing the polarity, the grip-head also helps propel metal objects when ‘slinging’.

*Magnetic Sensors---The Slingtail has sensitive EM sensors for sniffing out metal and electrical fields.
Range: The magnetometer has a range of 4,000 ft and can detect vehicles and other metallic structures with 80% accuracy. Can detect active magnetic fields(such as plasma containment fields and powered-up rail guns) at TWICE that distance.

*Short Range Ground-Penetrating Radar---Microwave radar array fpr scanning thr ground in front of the Warmount.
The ground radar has a range of 2,000 ft, and has a 90% chance of detecting metal-cased mines, 60% chance of detecting non-metallic ordnance.


Weapons Systems:
1) Eye Lasers(2) ---Standard robotic eye lasers, common in the Shemarrian arsenal.
Range: 2,000 ft
Damage: 3d6 MD per single blast, or 6d6 MD per double blast
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

2) Plasma Cutter---Mounted in the mouth behind the mandibles is a plasma cutter used for cutting up tough metal and monster flesh. It also has a very short ranged attack mode.
Range: (Cutting Mode) 5 ft
(Blaster Mode) 500 ft
(Spray Mode) 250 ft
Damage: (Cutting Mode) 1d6x10 SDC, 1d6 MD, 4d6 MD, or 4d6x10 MD per full melee burn
(Blaster Mode)5d6 MD per shot
(Spray Mode) 4d6 MD per blast to a 12 ft wide area
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

3) Claws(2)----The Slingtail has two powerful pincers that can snip or grip.
Range: Melee
Damage: 4d6 MD

4) Bite----The Slingtail has a powerful scissor bite.
Range: Melee
Damage: 3d6 MD

5) Catapult---The Slingtail’s trademark attack is to throw heavy debris at opponents in a snap-throw. The gripping head has four claws and a central magnetic/molecular adhesion surface for holding various materials tightly and firmly. The tail is rated for 12,600 lbs lifting capacity(enough to throw small trucks or a 72 inc diameter roll of 12 inch-width steel).
Range: Roughly 900 ft
Damage: Thrown/Dropped Large Objects: 3D6 per 100 lbs (45 kg) +10 per 40 feet (12.2 m). So a full load of scrap will do 3d6x126 SDC on target(or roughly 5d4 MD).

Note, however, that Shemarrian Tinkers have been known to use the Slingtail to fling barrels of caustics, poisonous chemicals, or improvised ‘barrel bombs’ of both incendiary and explosive types at opponents.
Rate of Fire: Picking up and throwing a fresh load of garbage takes 2 APMs each
Payload: One projectile per throw

6) (Optional) Modular Weapons(3)---The Slingtail has provision for torso-mounting two weapons similar to those standard to the Monstrex. A third hardpoint can be mounted on the tail.


Programming:
The Ecotroz have installed robotic AIs, then infected the matrix with a low-level Ecotroz sentience.
Typically has the same programming as the Monstrex, plus the following:
Excavation 50%(+5% per level of experience for Ecotroz entity)
Prowl/Hide 50%(+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 Slingtail 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: 5
Initiative +2 (+1 from the Ecotroz entity for a total of +3)
Dodge +3
Strike +2 (+2 w/ ranged weaponry)
Parry +5
Roll +3
Critical Strike on natural 19-20
Bite 1d6 MD
Claw Strike/Punch 2d6 MD
Claw Scissor Cut 4d6 MD
Crush/Squeeze 2d4 MD
Tail Lash 3d6 MD
Leg Kick 1d4 MD

Note: The Ecotroz intelligence fragment inhabiting the ‘bot gives the Slingtail an aura and behavior more befitting a sentient being than a robot. The Slingtail is a patient and loyal hardworking beast of burden, who follows orders readily.

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.
Susceptible to Exorcism and Banish spells, but are +6 to save against such spells, +1 at levels 4, 8, and 12 of experience, and becoming IMMUNE at level 14 and up. Such Banishment causes the ‘bot to revert to its default robot programming. (OPTION: Ecotroz may become IMMUNE to Exorcism and Banishment with experience, and NEW BUILT EShemar constructs are immune to this)

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:
*Safety Cage----A canopy frame can be set up over the saddle to protect the rider. The cage provides protection to the back and top, but is open on the front and sides(it’s meant mainly to protect the rider from falling debris). 100 MDC, effective Armor Rating of 14.

*Buzzsaw Claw Replacement---Stealing an idea or two from the Northern Gun Scorpion Battler, the Slingtail can have one or both of its claws replaced with rotary vibroblades, doing 4d6 MD on a swat, or 1d6x10 MD on a powered slice.

*Jackhammer Claws---Rather than mount claws or saws, the Slingtail can instead carry powerful piston jackhammers/piledrivers. These do 2d4x10 MD on a piledrive punch/machine gun battering(takes 2 attacks, but BOTH arms, if so fitted, can be synchronized for a truly brutal combined attack doing 4d4x10 MD!).

*Thermal Refractory Armor---The Slingtail can be armored in heat-resistant refractory armor that takes 75% LESS damage from heat-based attacks/exposure such as plasma, fire, and lava. Ideal for Slingtails working in foundaries or on heat-hell planets.

Variants:
* EcoS-K-52Hm----Hawkmoon variant, seen only with the Shemarrian Star Nation branch of the Tribe. The EcoS-K-52Hm features localized gravity polarizers in its feet and main body, allowing it to cling to and climb the high structures and promontories the Hawkmoons call home.

[taalismn]

Thanks to SolCannibal I now have some nasty new ideas for new Warmounts to utterly TORQUE some Splugorth minions into doing stupid things....
Not that I was wanting for ideas already, but now I'm even more backlogged on nasty little hardware ideas.

[taalismn]

EcoS-K-59 ‘Innesi’ Aerial Warmount
(aka ‘Buzznaut’)
http://i408.photobucket.com/albums/pp164/taalismn/img423_zps66c68b21.jpg


The stable-gate watchguard looked up as the dark spindly shape settled into place under the camouflage drapes concealing the cavern’s mouth, then she rose to greet the new arrival as the Warmount walked the rest of the way behind the closing cover.
“Welcome back, Sister Tsiphoni Night-terror! How was your patrol?”
The winged Elite vaulted from her insectile mount and continued to walk alongside it as it paced further into the stable before gesturing it to stop next to a feeding stall. Once she had opened several stopcocks, and made sure the Warmount was happily guzzling down a slurry of metal dust and lubricant oil, she turned and smiled at the guardswoman regarding her with an eight-eyed stare.
“Hoy, Sister Death-gaze! A good patrol indeed! I took care of that demoness, offed her cultists, drove off two bands of mercenaries, and got myself a pet!”
With a hiss and a click the wing cases of the flier split and lifted away to reveal the cage pod within. A small form lay strapped and unmoving inside.
“Cultist?”
“Demoness’s dinner. Bought from one of the slaver bands I took care of, so no point in releasing her locally.“
“You know you’re not going to be allowed to keep her.”
“Yeah, I figure though the elders will let me keep her long enough to scare some acolyte training into her, then I’ll trade her off to some other Tribe like the Horrorwoods. They’re sweet on getting new NeShemar and we’re trading with them these days.”
“Indeed.” The spider-eyed Warrior noted the large VR headset clamped around the prisoner’s head, and the water sip-tube clipped to the corner of the currently slack lips. “You got her drugged?”
“No, the headset’s running one of those long Wayfinder academic lectures. ‘-On the Psychological Analysis of Pre-Rifts Celebrity Reality Shows-’. She went out like a light.” The Tsiphoni reached into the cage and began unclipping the shackles that had kept the unconscious passenger from rattling around the pod.
“Maybe you better check her for brain damage then.”

The EcoS-K-59 is a light aerial support Warmount that appears to have been kludged together from several component sources. The Innesi appears to be a cross between a stripped-down EcoS-K-41 Pyrolyte and a Paladin Steel-made PS-HC-07 ‘Reliable’ Utility Hovercycle. The overall impression has led some observers to dub the EcoS-K-59 a ‘utility mosquito’. How the Lost Eclipse convinced the Blood Riders, a Tribe whom the Nightmares generally regard as self-misled heathen, to part with the Assembly Forge templates for their Pyrolyte Warmount, remains a mystery(and likely either a masterpiece of interTribal diplomacy or groveling).
The EcoS-K-59 has an insectile appearance, with an insect-like head and six long and thin legs that provide ready stability. Immediately aft of the built-in saddle is a cargo bay/bed that can be enclosed by four rigid wing-like shields, protecting the cargo from enemy fire, concealing it from view, or, in the case of prisoners, trapping them inside. The cargo bed is modular, allowing a variety of specialized systems pallets to be mounted, from a simple flatbed with cargo shackles or liquid transport tank, to a prisoner restraint and transport cage or chemical sprayer system.
The Innesi is heavier and slower than the Pyrolyte, but compensates by being more heavily armored and armed, with the modular pod offering a greater degree of versatility.
The EcoS-K-59 first appeared in the ranks of the Lost Eclipse where it was used initially to spray enemy formations with various aerosol chemical warfare agents, and to transport captured prisoners back to the Nightmares’ hidden lairs for more intense interrogation. Winged members(such as the Tisiphonii ) of the Lost Eclipse began favoring the Warmount as it allowed them to patrol wider regions without having to carry their equipment personally.

Type: EcoS-K-59 ‘Innesi’
Class: Robotic Warmount, Aerial
Crew: None; robot intelligence
1 rider/pilot
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 280
Head 100
*Wings(4) 90 each
Inner Pod Covers(4) 80 each
Legs(6) 90 each
Main Thrusters(2) 100 each
Secondary Thrusters(4) 40 each
(Optional) Transport/Ordnance Pod 100

*Destroying the wings will not destroy the Warmount’s flight capabilities, but will reduce maneuvering bonuses by HALF.

Height: 7 ft at shoulder, 11 ft to the top of the back
Width: 4 ft body, 36 ft wingspan
Length: 26 ft
Weight: 7,300 lbs
Cargo: Small space inside/beside the saddle-seat for a few personal possessions and sidearms, plus possible cargo poddage.
Physical Strength: Equivalent to Robotic P.S. of 30
Powerplant: Nuclear w/ 20 year energy life
Speed: (Running) 50 MPH
(Flying) 540 MPH, no altitude limit.
(Space) Mach 5.6
(Underwater) Limited to crawling along the bottom at 5 MPH, maximum depth of 8,000 ft. Flying Warmounts, though, tend to be VERY unhappy to be wet, let alone submerged.

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.

*Bionic Cybernanite Repair Systems---ALL Innesi 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.


Weapons Systems:
1) Eye Lasers(6)---The Nightmares hopped on the multi-eye laser array with the Innesi, with the Warmount sporting six lasers. allowing for powerful concentrated blasts, or an area of effect barrage.
Range: 2,000 ft
Damage: 3d6 MD single blast, 18d6(or 1d6x18 ) MD if all six eyes are firing on one target simultaneously.
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

2) Mouth Weapon---Another holdover from the Pyrolyte design, but slightly modified. Mounted above the four pincer jaws of the mouth is a four-barrel rapid-fire weapon. The Innesi can carry a light ion sprayer, pulse laser, light machine gun, or flame-thrower, depending in the rider’s preference. Other weapons have appeared in this slot, such as blinding lasers, light plasma cannon, or directed EMP blasters, but these are individual request-customizations.
a) Ion Pulse Cannon
Range: 2,000 ft
Damage: 4d6 MD per blast, 2d4x10 MD per four-shot pulse-blast
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

b) Pulse Laser
Range: 3,000 ft
Damage: 3d6 MD per blast, 1d6x10 MD per four-shot pulse-blast
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

c) Machine Gun(7.62mm caliber)---Typically loaded with incendiary tracer rounds
Range: 10,000 ft
Damage:(SDC) 6d6 SDC single shot, 4d6 x10 SDC(1d4 MD) per 10 rd burst, 8d6x10 SDC per 20 rd burst, 1d4 MD per 40 rd burst.
(Ramjets) 1 MD single shot, 1d10 MD per 10 rd burst, 2d10 MD per 20 rd burst, 1d4x10 MD per 40 rd burst.
(High Explosive)2d6x10 SDC single shot, 1d6 MD per 10 rd burst, 2d6 MD per 20 rd burst, 4d6 MD per 40 rd burst.
(Advanced High Explosive) 1d4 MD per rd, 1d4x10 MD per 10 rd burst, 2d4x10 MD per 20 rd burst, 4d4x10 MD per 40 rd burst.
(Tracer) Every 11th round is a tracer, which gives a +1 to strike with bursts. However, the tracer stream also makes it that much easier for enemies to backtrace and locate the machine gunner.
Rate of Fire: Standard; rated at 6,000 rpm(or 1,500 rounds per melee)
Payload: 4,000-rd belt

d) Flame-thrower
Range: 50 ft for regular fuels, 500 ft for napalm gels
Damage:
(Regular liquid fuels) 5d10 SDC, plus ignition of combustible materials
(Plasma napalm) 3d6 MD burst. A four-shot sustained burst/spray covers an area of 40 ft, doing 2d6 MD to everything caught in the area of effect.
(MD Gel)4D6 MD Upon contact, burning for 1D6 rounds doing 2D6 MD per round. Anything that the character touches also starts on fire. Any combustible materials within touching distance, clothes, brush, etc. also ignite.
Rate of Fire: Standard
Payload: Enough fuel for 100 blasts
Special Features: *Multi-Fuel Capacity


3) Tail Stinger---A small gunmount in the rear, identical to the mouth gunmount.

4) VibroClaws(6)---Each of the deceptively fragile-looking legs ends in an array of sharp vibroclaws, typically used for anchoring the Innesi to hulls, mountainsides, and other surfaces, but more than capable of being used in an eviscerating kick or armor-piercing spear-punch.
Range: Melee
Damage: 2d4 MD tear/pry/stab

5) VibroPincers----The mouth features four wicked vibroblade-edged pincers, for tearing into prey.
Range: Melee
Damage: 2d6 MD on a bite, 6d6 MD on a two-attack pry/chew

Programming:
The Ecotroz have installed robotic AIs, then infected the matrix with a low-level Ecotroz sentience.
Typically has the same basic programming as for the Monstrex, plus the following:
Pilot Jet Fighter 70%(+5% per level of experience)(for maneuvering purposes).
The Ecotroz entity can also pick up one Secondary skill at levels 2, 6, and 12 of experience, though the nature of the Innesi 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: 7
Initiative +2 (+1 from the Ecotroz entity for a total of +3)
Dodge +3, +6 in flight
Automatic Dodge +4
Strike +1 (+2 w/ ranged weaponry)
Roll +2(+5 in flight)
Bite 2d6 MD
Power Bite/Chew(2 attacks) 5d6 MD
Kick/Punch 2d4 MD
Leap/Flying Pounce(2 attacks) 6d8 MD

Note: The Ecotroz intelligence fragment inhabiting the ‘bot gives the Innesi an aura and behavior more befitting a sentient being than a robot. The Innesi has an aggressive predatory personality given to stalking and ambushing prey; patient when necessary, but merciless in combat.

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:
Cargo Bed Configurations:

*Cargo Pod---Can carry up to 1,000 lbs of gear in the rear cargo deck.

*Chemical Sprayer
Range: Depending on wind and altitude, the Innesi can spray a 100 foot wide swath at maximum dispersal.
Damage: Varies by chemical type. If using water, typically does 4d6 HP to vampires(‘Bless the tank, Holy Father!”). The Lost Eclipse typically deploys hallucinatory nerve gases.
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: 100 gallons

*Mosquito Launcher----The Lost Eclipse traded the Horrorwoods for their version of the Northern Gun NMX-18 Stinger Anti-Flyer Mine(see Rifts Merc Ops, pg. 97-98 ), in that it fires projectiles that are almost exactly identical to the robotic Stinger flyer-warheads released by that weapon. The Shemarrian projectiles, however, have slightly better range and endurance, can be deployed against ground targets as well, and can also be used to deliver chemical agents.
Range: 5,000 ft
Damage: Each Hornet does 5d6 MD to a 30 ft blast radius
In the alternative, each Hornet can explode in a shower or cloud of chemical agent, or can be used to sting and inject targets with various chemicals(before then self-destructing).
Rate of Fire: Bursts of 1-12 Hornets
Payload: 48 Hornet missiles in the magazine

*Jammer Pod---A broad-spectrum radio jammer that can pump out enough multi-wavelength white noise to jam civilian band communications with 90% effectiveness, and military comms with 70% effectiveness, over a 20 mile radius. Also gives radar-guided weaponry a -4 to strike the drone. Or it can be used offensively, to foil ALL radar-guided weaponry in a 15 mile radius(-2 to strike).

*Prisoner Transport Pod---This is a reinforced cage that can hold a single prisoner(or up to three if jammed in). The Nightmares typically keep those they take alive bound, drugged, and locked under a VR headset to impose sensory deprivation and increase prisoner disorientation, both to keep knowledge of the Lost Eclipse’s movements and activities from being observed up-close, and to terrorize their prisoners. If desired, the wings may be closed around the cage to further enforce the sensory deprivation. Depending on the situation, the pod can be modified with electrified bars, sedation systems, or a prisoner feeding/watering system.

[taalismn]

Art for both the Slingtail and the Innesi Warmounts is up in their respective posts.

[89er]

Updated warmount schedule that I am working on,

EcoS-K 65 Audiocity- Killer jackrabbit of sound warfare

EcoS-K 66 BarrierHog- Big pig for taking big hits

EcoS-K 67 Hexadra- Six headed garage and construction site

EcoS-K 68 Mixmaw- Turing recycling into a war crime

[taalismn]

Updated warmount schedule that I am working on,

EcoS-K 65 Audiocity- Killer jackrabbit of sound warfare

EcoS-K 66 BarrierHog- Big pig for taking big hits

EcoS-K 67 Hexadra- Six headed garage and construction site

EcoS-K 68 Mixmaw- Turing recycling into a war crime

You're reading my mind again; you've started EXACTLY where I leave off in the latest updated numerical sequence of new Warmounts, so I don;t have to re-number what I've already got. Very considerate of you, thank you!

[taalismn]

Clan Flamewing (Fringe Tribe)

i)Technology Level
Adavnced Space-Age. Roughly equal to Three Galaxies’ technology. The ability to produce starships and associated technologies is well within this tribe’s grasp. In fact, several unknown hull-types have been seen amongst their assault fleets, along with variations on well-known Shemarrian starcraft (the designs having been purchased and then deseminated to Flamewing constructor vessels)..

Including, possibly, unmanned CG-drive relativistic velocity planetary bombardment missiles?
Drop out of FTL right up close to the enemy homeworld, come out already going damn fast, don't brake, floor the acceleration, with only enough power left over for the forward shields so the big honkin' missile doesn't get BB'ed by matter in its way.
Kills continents, breaches crusts, spanks ass seriously.

[DhAkael]

Clan Flamewing (Fringe Tribe)

i)Technology Level
Adavnced Space-Age. Roughly equal to Three Galaxies’ technology. The ability to produce starships and associated technologies is well within this tribe’s grasp. In fact, several unknown hull-types have been seen amongst their assault fleets, along with variations on well-known Shemarrian starcraft (the designs having been purchased and then deseminated to Flamewing constructor vessels)..

Including, possibly, unmanned CG-drive relativistic velocity planetary bombardment missiles?
Drop out of FTL right up close to the enemy homeworld, come out already going damn fast, don't brake, floor the acceleration, with only enough power left over for the forward shields so the big honkin' missile doesn't get BB'ed by matter in its way.
Kills continents, breaches crusts, spanks ass seriously.

Exactly.
Don't even need anti-matter / explosives for that. Just a large and heavy nose (even iron or compacted regolith will do) going fractional-C slamming down in the middle of a Sploogorthian market square would really ruin Klyncryths' day.
Other starship designs include modified Taskmaster cap-ships with enhanced massdriver (Smaller projectiles, but with CG boosters on the slugs to continue accelerating after leaving the muzzle) and "borrowed" Naruni plasma-beam cannons in broad-side batteries of which, the irony is NOT lost on the Flamewing Taros'. Their Abysal Dragon varient uses a positron cannon for it's primary weapon, along with extended range GRASER and X-ray lasers (ustilizing an "undulator" instead of fision explosive to power) as secodary weapons.

I still have to figure out how to stat out their infantry-scaled weapons... that will be forth coming.

[taalismn]

Clan Flamewing (Fringe Tribe)

i)Technology Level
Adavnced Space-Age. Roughly equal to Three Galaxies’ technology. The ability to produce starships and associated technologies is well within this tribe’s grasp. In fact, several unknown hull-types have been seen amongst their assault fleets, along with variations on well-known Shemarrian starcraft (the designs having been purchased and then deseminated to Flamewing constructor vessels)..

Including, possibly, unmanned CG-drive relativistic velocity planetary bombardment missiles?
Drop out of FTL right up close to the enemy homeworld, come out already going damn fast, don't brake, floor the acceleration, with only enough power left over for the forward shields so the big honkin' missile doesn't get BB'ed by matter in its way.
Kills continents, breaches crusts, spanks ass seriously.

Exactly.
Don't even need anti-matter / explosives for that. Just a large and heavy nose (even iron or compacted regolith will do) going fractional-C slamming down in the middle of a Sploogorthian market square would really ruin Klyncryths' day.
Other starship designs include modified Taskmaster cap-ships with enhanced massdriver (Smaller projectiles, but with CG boosters on the slugs to continue accelerating after leaving the muzzle) and "borrowed" Naruni plasma-beam cannons in broad-side batteries of which, the irony is NOT lost on the Flamewing Taros'. Their Abysal Dragon varient uses a positron cannon for it's primary weapon, along with extended range GRASER and X-ray lasers (ustilizing an "undulator" instead of fision explosive to power) as secodary weapons.

I still have to figure out how to stat out their infantry-scaled weapons... that will be forth coming.

"Major John Skokes?"
"...yes...?"
"You are dead."
"..."
"Your planet is destroyed."
"..."
"Your species is in peril."
"..."
"Do you wish justice upon those responsible?"
"...yes..."
"Excellent. You have been resurrected and reconstructed by the Flamewing. Your awareness is currently integrated into the decision making processes of our strategic weaponry. The species responsible for the aforementioned actions has been deemed Irredeemable, their existence forfeit. You currently have at your disposal six Final Judgement hypervelocity weapons within eight light seconds of their homeworld. All you have to do is give them the order to activate and deploy. Conclusive simulations forecast a total extinction of all life upon the planetary surface and eighty percent extinction within a one-point-three light second radius upon impact.
The decision is yours, John Skokes. The decision is yours."

[kronos]

Clan Flamewing (Fringe Tribe)

i)Technology Level
Adavnced Space-Age. Roughly equal to Three Galaxies’ technology. The ability to produce starships and associated technologies is well within this tribe’s grasp. In fact, several unknown hull-types have been seen amongst their assault fleets, along with variations on well-known Shemarrian starcraft (the designs having been purchased and then deseminated to Flamewing constructor vessels)..

Including, possibly, unmanned CG-drive relativistic velocity planetary bombardment missiles?
Drop out of FTL right up close to the enemy homeworld, come out already going damn fast, don't brake, floor the acceleration, with only enough power left over for the forward shields so the big honkin' missile doesn't get BB'ed by matter in its way.
Kills continents, breaches crusts, spanks ass seriously.

Exactly.
Don't even need anti-matter / explosives for that. Just a large and heavy nose (even iron or compacted regolith will do) going fractional-C slamming down in the middle of a Sploogorthian market square would really ruin Klyncryths' day.
Other starship designs include modified Taskmaster cap-ships with enhanced massdriver (Smaller projectiles, but with CG boosters on the slugs to continue accelerating after leaving the muzzle) and "borrowed" Naruni plasma-beam cannons in broad-side batteries of which, the irony is NOT lost on the Flamewing Taros'. Their Abysal Dragon varient uses a positron cannon for it's primary weapon, along with extended range GRASER and X-ray lasers (ustilizing an "undulator" instead of fision explosive to power) as secodary weapons.

I still have to figure out how to stat out their infantry-scaled weapons... that will be forth coming.

Big bore or standard sized gravity based railgun/massdriver that gives more range and damage from velocity alone. The enhanced cg boosters in projectile weapons allow denser projectiles for more OOMPH.. anti-matter rifles? neutron blasters? gravity manipulator grenades that create micro blackholes (only need about a micron to 1mm) for either nanoseconds to a couple full seconds?

[taalismn]

Self-sustaining fusion reaction warheads that actually last more than a few microseconds' worth of fusion. We're talking the full-on damage of a small fusion STAR for a melee or more. Might even do damage to beings normally susceptible only to raw sunlight....

[kronos]

Self-sustaining fusion reaction warheads that actually last more than a few microseconds' worth of fusion. We're talking the full-on damage of a small fusion STAR for a melee or more. Might even do damage to beings normally susceptible only to raw sunlight....

That'd be a bit heavier for infantry weapons.. but in theory.. maybe good against those vulnerable to sunlight..

[taalismn]

And on the subject of heavy artillery...BIG fuel air explosives...we're talking 'instant firestorm', not just flash and bang...for burning out cities and entire forests when you don't want the stigma of using nukes.

[abtex]

Shemarrian in training

Or a want-to-be?

[guardiandashi]

Mk 77340 "Alecian" plasma thermite missiles, nicknamed "hellburners" by people who have seen them in action
They appear to be a weapon the "Alecians" have just receintly started using (or let people realize they have access to) these missiles are massively heavy for their "class" and seem to be rather inaccurate mostly because they do not maneuver quickly. (a minimissile weighs like a srm should a srm weighs like a mrm, mrm like a long range and well long range missiles are .....)
upon firing the missiles accelerate more slowly than more conventional missiles but seem to be outputting more thrust ie thrusting like their bigger brethren. Upon getting to their target area they seem to be proximity fused and typically detonate a few feet from their apparent target, which is when the truly evil nature of their warheads becomes evident, they emit vast amounts of what on spectral analysis appears to be a modified plasma warhead fuel optimized for space combat and after a moment too short to observe except under playback from a super high speed camera recording the fuel spreads out and then ignites. the truly scary part is that it burns hotter than most plasma munitions and burns a lot longer additionally the fuel is "sticky" and includes its own "oxidizer" the fuel is resistant to be being cleaned off and cannot be extinguished by conventional means such as water, most firefighting foams and similar. the only effective method to date is to "scrub" the burning fuel off using dirt or similar and even that does not put it out, it just gets it off the victim.
a "mini-missile" does 1d6x10 mdc to a 20 ft blast radius, but burns for 6D6 MDC/melee for an additional minute
a short range missile does 2d6x10 mdc to a 30 ft blast radius but burns for 1d6x10/melee for 1d4+1 minutes
a medium range missile strikes for 3d6x10 mdc to a 50 foot blast radius but burns for 2d6x10 mdc /melee for 1d6+1 minutes
long range versions appear to do in the neighborhood of 1d4x100 mdc to a 100 foot blast radius and burns for 2d6+10 minutes for 5d6x10 mdc/melee

all these missiles only have a +1 to hit bonus instead of the +3 and +3 instead of +5 if built as a "smart bomb" (rare)

so ok or way to powerful? basically they are supposed to do around 1/2 the damage the damage of "the next size bigger plasma heat" missile, initially but more than make up for in the "burn" phase

[taalismn]

Mk 77340 "Alecian" plasma thermite missiles, nicknamed "hellburners" by people who have seen them in action

so ok or way to powerful? basically they are supposed to do around 1/2 the damage the damage of "the next size bigger plasma heat" missile, initially but more than make up for in the "burn" phase

It's off the wall and it's original...that's what matters. And considering the source, readily acceptable(we have no shame here) .

[taalismn]

(another Fringe Tribe based on 89er’s list)

IceFlames(Fringe Tribe)
(aka ‘Frozen Flames’)

“Would you rather die by fire, or by ice? Decide quickly, or we decide for you.”

The IceFlames derive their name and philosophy from their claimed freehold on a world tidally-locked around its parent star. Cryochar’s rotational period is effectively the same as its year, so one face of the planet always faces the sun. By human standards, Cryochar’s habitable regions are its twilight and polar zones, with the longitude zones averaging between 80-100 miles wide before becoming uncomfortably cold or hot on either side. Seasonal creep can cut as far as 30 miles into this zone from either direction.
The ancestors of the IceFlames came to Cryochar by accident; a group of Lost Eclipse Tribesmen from Rifts Earth, hoping to pioneer a new Rift travel route(without Wayfinder assistance), were deposited on the planet when the interdimensional rift carrying them collapsed(there are some hints in the tribe’s lore that they may have come under attack by rift demons while transiting). Unable to reopen the rift or make contact with the Shemarrian Nation(or the Star Nation) again, the Tribesmen settled down to make the best of a bad(but far from horrible) situation, and were able to construct Trinity Modules and mini-fac installations to colonize the planet. Unfortunately, the world they found themselves on was NOT uninhabited; others had also taken an interest n the planet.
Currently, Cryochar is a warzone; the IceFlames are locked in a war against a demonic infestation, possibly part of the Minion War, that has also sought to colonize the planet’s inhabitable zones. Cryochar seems to have rich mineral deposits that the demons want for their War, and they have brought slaves to mine and refine those minerals. The Shemarrians were in the way, so they were attacked. Since then, the two forces have fought over the twilight zones, with occasional forays and maneuvers through the scorching hot sun side and the freezing cold dark side. The Shemarrians have sought to liberate and turn to their side as many slaves as they can, but the demons have just as eagerly shoveled more in as cannonfodder, or killed them to keep them from being freed, or to harvest their PPE. This bitter pattern of warfare has raged for over fifty years, and it is hoped by the IceFlames’ elders that the recent reconnection with the Tribes will help turn the tide in the Shemarrians’ favor.
Rather than rejoin the Lost Eclipse, the Iceflanes have declared their intention to take Cryochar as their own new homeworld, as a separate, but allied, political entity, provided the Lost Eclipse is forthcoming with material aide in ousting the Infernals.
The IceFlames already show some divergence from their origin Tribe; the exigencies of their war against the Infernals have led to some chances in their society. The IceFlames have forsaken the deformities common to the Lost Eclipse, with all but the oldest members of the Tribe eschewing the monstrous appearances of the Nightmares. Instead, IceFlames are distinguished by extensive body tattoos and skin painting, often depicting a flame motif on one side of their bodies and an ice motif on the other.

Motif: A spray of red flame within a blue crystal. Alternatively, a jet of cold blue flame.

a)Origins:
Splinter of the Nightmare Tribe

b)Where First Encountered
Other Universe. The original Lost Eclipse expedition was trapped when the transport rift that carried them collapsed. A later Wayfinder exploration party was able to open more stable rifts and reestablished contact with them.

c)Tribe Size
Modest; 10,000 known members

d)Tribe Organization
Traditional Matriarchy

e)Tribal Composition
Warriors make up 28% of the tribe, followed by NeShemar at 25%, Male Shemarrians at 17%, Tinkers/Spinsters at 12%, and the remaining 28% fairly evenly divided up among the remaining castes.

f) Highest Caste Class
Elites---The IceFlames retain the Nightmares’ home-brewed Elite types, but have been modifying them towards the new aesthetic(with the exception of the Nahsi spider-women, who refuse to change anything about their monstrous appearances).

g) Gender Division
Evenly divided between males and females, 50%/50%. Some Wayfinders have remarked on this and wondered why there isn’t at least a tiny Progen-born ‘neuter’ or ‘herm’ population, in keeping with the overall description of Cryochar. The IceFlames haven’t been amused by this and regarded the speculating Wayfinders as idiots.

h) Home Environment
Cryochar, a world locked between scorching solar burn and the killing chill of deep night. The IceFlames have a few permanent fortified enclaves hidden in the twilight zones, or in heavily shaded/shielded outposts on either side in the sunside and shadowside.

i)Technology Level
Megadamage Age; roughly equivalent to Rifts Earth, and about what would be found with the Lost Eclipse Tribe of Rifts Earth, including their Tribe-specific Warmounts. The IceFlames have had to nurse what resources they started out with and adapt to local conditions, but they did lose some of the Galactic-level technology they started out with. The IceFlames currently have NO spacecraft or heavy transport, though it’s hoped that that will change, allowing them to seize the high ground and maneuver around their Infernal opponents with impunity.

j) Relations with Outsiders:
Indifferent---While the IceFlames have sought to liberate as many slaves as they can from the demons, having dealt with too many quislings and attempted infiltrators, and fought off too many massed slave troop charges, the IceFlames don’t feel any particular emotional attachment or friendly predisposition towards non-Shemarrians. ‘Move along and don’t make our jobs any harder than they have to be’ seems to be the general attitude of the IceFlames when dealing with the non-Shemarrians(and non-demons) on Cryochar. Ironically, this attitude is also taken up by the tribe’s NeShemar who constitute a quarter of the tribe; many of the ex-slaves quickly identify with the Shemarrian point of view. The fact that many of the ex-slaves suffered just as hard from the depredations of other slaves hasn’t helped this.

k)Relations with Other ‘Shemarrians’
Neutral; currently the IceFlames are too concerned with their own agendas to pay much attention to the outside worlds. If the other Tribes want to help them, fine, but otherwise the IceFlames would very much like to be left alone, thank you. No solicitors, please.

l) Purpose
Crusade---Eliminate the demons and take control of Cryochar is the current mission objective of the IceFlames.

m) Preferred Mode of Combat
Blitzkrieg---The IceFlames use combined air and ground combat to attack their enemies. The fact that Cryochar’s particularly violent weather patterns makes flying a difficult proposition makes this especially impressive.

n) Unique Attributes
Bizarre Rituals----Members of the IceFlames, especially NeShemar initiates, are often required to ‘embrace fire and ice’, being alternately frozen and scorched by cryogenic and thermal processes, frozen into ice, then blasted out by heat weaponry, or immersing themselves in flammable fluids and then being quenched by icy liquids or vapors. Other rituals include burning frozen and crystalized methane in the palms of their hands. The overall effect is to inure the IceFlame members to merely environmental hardships.
The IceFlames have also developed a few unique weapons that capitalize on Cryochar’s harsh dichotomy; plasma weapons that are combined with molecular motion suspension lasers or cryogenic vapor sprayers, superheating targets and then shattering them with cold-shock, or crystallizing them, before ablating and vaporizing them with intense heat. Other weapons include cryo-rapiers that freeze solid flesh they spear, then use vibro-effect to shatter the crystallized flesh.

o) Prosperity
Successful; despite being constantly hammered by their demonic enemies, the IceFlames have still managed to do quite well for themselves, with every tribe member receiving a full load-out of weaponry and equipment, with enough extra material production to cache against future campaigns. Some of that surplus is going to arming armed rebellion in the slave camps.

p) Chart P: Origin Tribe
Offshoot of the Lost Eclipse.

Cryochar---Iceflame ‘homeworld’.
Cryochar is tide-locked around a blue dwarf star
Solar System
Types of Stars: Blue Dwarf
Number of Planets: Cryochar is the only known planet of its primary. Then again, neither the Shemarrians nor the Infernals have had any time or predisposition to engage in local astronomy.

Planet
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: Huge: 100,000 km diameter

Gravity: Heavy; x4 normal Earth gravity.
The high gravity has proven a major factor for both the Shemarrians and the Infernals. The IceFlames have had to upgrade their actuators and muscle myomers. The Infernals have to keep shipping in new slaves to replace those that succumb to accidents in the higher gravity or just plain fatigue and heart failure. To get their workers and slave soldiers working harder, the Infernals often use magic or force-feed their slaves concoctions of drugs that allow them to work harder and move faster, but these these are temporary solutions and burn out the slaves even faster. Liberated slaves that are inducted into the IceFlames as NeShemar often immediately undergo partial- or full-bionic conversion, reducing the strain on their bodies.

Temperature: Varies; Earth-temperate in the twilight zones, colder around the poles. On the sun-side, the temperatures climb to 440 degrees F, while on the night side they drop to -315 degrees F.

Unusual/Special Features:
-Strange Orbit
-Rotation---One side of the planet always faces the sun, with little variation
-Moons---Cryochar has 18 small moons(roughly the size of Mars’ moon Diemos) that are too small to create an appreciable tidal effects, though the Infernals often use the pattern of the moons to synchronize certain rituals and Rift openings. The moons also have the added effect of reflecting enough light onto the night side of Cryochar to create changing temperature gradients, in some places causing frozen gas and water to hear up just enough to sublimate and be carried dayside by the powerful winds.

Atmosphere: Normal and breathable, at least in the twilight zones and around the poles. Scorching/scalding hot or near liquid-cold elsewhere. Cryochar is afflicted with near constant high winds blowing in low from the nightside, heating up on the sunside, then circulating over the in-rushing winds to cool down at high altitude, drift back to the shadowside and falling back to the surface. Terrain and seasonal tilt can lead to variations in the weather, such as massive thunderstorm cells, torrential rains, or falls of condensed dust(material melted on the sunside, borne aloft, and deposited towards the shadowside). The high winds(in excess of 70 MPH) make flying, even for natural fliers, a difficult proposition(in general, HALF all normal bonuses while flying).

Terrain: 4+ terrains. The safest and most sought after places on Cryochar are protected mountain valleys where liquid water can drain, shielded from the rampant winds.

Notable Mineral Concentrations:
-Cobalt
-Sapphire
-Tin
-Aluminum
-Emerald
-Samarskite
-Thorium
-Borax

Hydrosphere: Badlands. Most of the moisture on the sunside is in the form of vapor at high altitude, that of the nightside is locked in ice. Only in the twilight zones does water consistently remain as a liquid, and that is fought over by the two forces on Cryochar.

Biosphere: Sparse. What little native life there is is fairly thin, consisting mainly of algae, lichens, and fungus-like organisms, some of which have evolved to form colony organisms. There is a marked dichotomy in the lifeforms depending on which side of the twilight zone they are located; sunside organisms are increasingly heat-tolerant and solar- or heat-energized, while those located on the shadowside are cold-tolerant and increasingly chemotropic, living off melted ice and digested rock. Even that, though, is endangered by the warfare between the Infernals and the Shemarrians. For their part, the Infernals have learned to cultivate some of the local fungi and algae to feed their slaves, a practice copied by the Shemarrians to provide their own NeShemar members with sustenance(in addition to what private stocks of food they confiscate from the Infernals when they raid them).

Civilization:
Divided; on one side are ten thousand Shemarrians. On the other, roughly twenty thousand infernals and one hundred thousand slaves.

Population:
Roughly 130,000 sentients on the planet.

Technology:
The Shemarrians possess Rifts Earth Megadamage-age technology. The Infernals are roughly 20th century in terms of technology, but also have magic and supernatural abilities.

Economy:
The Infernals are running a mining colony operation, strip-mining regions and sending it back through the Rifts to where they came from.
The IceFlames are doing well enough for themselves in their hidden industrial enclaves.

Wealth:
Cryochar is quite mineral-rich, but the majority of the inhabitants, the slaves working the mines, don’t enjoy any of that wealth.

Government:
Slavedrivers and strongmen in the Infernal camp, matriarchy in the Shemarrian bands.

Law Level:
Lawless warzone. Only the Shemarrians have anything like humane law and order. The Infernals practice far simpler law enforcement; Obey or Die.

Popularity:
The Infernals are grossly unpopular. The slaves hate them, the Shemarrians hate them, and even some of the Infernals themselves hate each other, making petty power grabs and schemes to put themselves on top of operations. Given a choice, the slaves would rather live under the Shemarrians.

Stability:
Uncertain. Possession of prime territory on Cryochar wobbles between the Shemarrian and Infernal camps.
With contact reestablished with the Shemarrian Tribes, the balance of power is tipping in favor of the IceFlames.

[taalismn]

(another 89er Tribe Lister, fleshed out)
The Obsidian Dawn
(Fringe Tribe)
(aka ‘Blacklanders’, ‘Blackflaggers’)

“Vermin have an intelligence all their own; they outsmart their opponents by being dumb. Bacteria and macro-vermin aren’t afraid of reputations, or appearances. They don’t respect honor or chivalry. They don’t respond to entreaties, threats, intimidations, embargoes, or diplomatic protests. They don’t run, they don’t break, they don’t negotiate. They live only to eat and multiply. They wear down their opposition, they EAT their opposition, because they know nothing else. Fighting vermin takes determination, persistence, and a recognition that there are no fast and easy solutions, no middle ground. You fight vermin until they are ALL gone, exterminated, obliterated. Anything less and you’re just giving the vermin time to regroup and build up numbers again, to overwhelm you.”

Being a roboid has its advantages when dealing with biologicals; you can’t be infected, can’t be poisoned, and few creatures find you appetizing. The Obsidian Dawn takes advantage of this in their self-declared profession as pest exterminators. Though pretty much every Tribe at some time or other takes up the elimination of invasive species(be they non-sentient or sentient, and almost always regarded as ‘vermin’), the Obsidian Dawn specializes in it.
The Obsidian Dawn has its origins on the fringes of the Thundercloud Galaxy. Apparently a group of Skullcrushers were approached about cleaning up a colony world that had fallen to a particularly nasty local pest. While normally the stoic and grimdark Skullcrushers would have refused to entertain such an entreaty, thinking it below them, in this case the presiding Wargoddess decided to listen. After landing and exterminating the entire population of local vermin, and re-opening the planet to colonization, the Skullcrushers were so pleased with the generous compensation paid them for their troubles, they decided to go into business as planetary rat-catchers full time. The scandal that resulted when the more conservative Skullcrusher elders learned of this helped drive a wedge between the responsible Wargoddess and her sisters in the Tribal leadership, and the ‘pest-control tribe’ decided to go their own way.
The Obsidian Dawn is available for hire to clean up other peoples’ messes, and their business has been steady. Be it cleaning out a space station infested by space ugglies, decontaminating industrial sites of rasp-slugs, and removing space coral creatures from asteroid mines. With the push to grab and colonize territory in the Thundercloud Galaxy, the Obsidian Dawn has been particularly busy securing potential colony sites known to have vermin problems, and cleaning up colonies that have come under threat, or fallen to, local pests. The Obsidan Dawn has gained particular notoriety for successfully dealing with several infestations of Yboor blobs.
The ‘Dawn hasn’t always been greeted with open arms; they’ve been criticized in the past for indiscriminately wiping out entire native species with little thought for the possible ecological consequences. They’ve also been rumored to have wiped out at least one SENTIENT species, under the impression it was a type of simple-minded vermin. And at least three planets have suffered massive ecological crashes as a result of Obsidian Dawn actions.
Conversely, the Obsidian Dawn has also managed, in several cases, to control introduced species that have run rampant, threatening sensitive local ecologies. They’ve also contained escaped bioweapons and thwarted several biological warfare campaigns(including several infestations of Kreeghor Killhounds).

Motif: Black starburst

a)Origins:
Splinter of the Skullcrushers.

b)Where First Encountered
Three Galaxies

c)Tribe Size
Extensive; 400,000 members.

d)Tribe Organization
Trial By Combat---The Obsidian Dawn is one of the tribes who use trail-by-combat to determine leadership. It’s not known how this came about in a tribe of pest exterminators, but the Dawn has nevertheless adopted an elaborate code duello to elect their leaders. The ‘combats’ aren’t necessarily with fists, melee weapons, or firearms, and are never to the death(and seldom ever to maiming; the agreed-upon combats can be as simple as, in one case, a game of tiddlywinks, and the outcome to the contest can be settled by a point system. Whatever; it works for the Obsidian Dawn.

e)Tribal Composition
Warriors make up 62% of the tribe, followed by specialized Elites at 21%, and the remaining 17% divided up amongst the other classes. The tribe notably has quite a few VatFathers amongst their Elite numbers.
The Obsidian Dawn doesn’t accept many NeShemar, but those who are inducted into their ranks, often come to them in rather pathetic shape; half-eaten, half-digested, almost always traumatized, and requiring extensive bionic modification and psyche-rewiring.

f) Highest Caste Class
Wargoddess

g) Gender Division
Females make up 73% of the tribe, males 27%

h) Home Environment
Nomadic space-dwellers. The ‘Dawn goes where the work is.

i)Technology Level
Supertech; the Dawn has a general tech level equal to the Three Galaxies’ main powers, but has specializations in chemical and radiological processes.

j) Relations with Outsiders:
Friendly; the Obsidian Dawn is in the business of hiring themselves out to do pest extermination and biological sterilization, which means they have to be approachable for potential clients. That doesn’t mean they don’t charge stiff fees for their services, however, though many customers regard the cost as well-worth the expense, given that some of the required jobs would otherwise require full-scale military invasions, or would result in the colony site being just written off as a total loss. They’ve also worked with other professional pest-extermination services and exorcists on occasion.

k)Relations with Other ‘Shemarrians’
Enthusiastic supporters of the Shemarrian Star Nation. This comes in handy when the Obsidian Dawn encounters some pest species they can’t deal with using their standard methods; such as zombies or vampires. When the ‘Dawn runs into something they can’t handle in the usual fashion, they turn to the Tribes, soliciting assistance in return for a piece of the contract fees.

l) Purpose
Survival. It’s a hostile, vermin-infested universe out there. By developing the means to clean out pests, the Obsidian Dawn is making it safer for the Shemarrian people. By hiring out their services, they’re making allies and strengthening the SSN’s alliances.

m) Preferred Mode of Combat
When not on the job, the Obsidian Dawn likes its combat up close and personal, with fists and blades. If they don’t particularly like their opponents, then that personal combat is accompanied in-close with clouds of chemical agents or sterilizing radiation.

n) Unique Attributes
-Unique Warmount; the Obsidian Dawn’s Warmounts are optimized as vermin extermination platforms, deploying chemical weapons, radiological sterilization, or hordes of smaller vermin-hunters and/or nanites.
Most Obsidian Dawners will also have built-in chemical sprayer systems and at least a practical knowledge of chemistry, biology, and botany.

o) Prosperity
-Wealthy; the extermination business has been VERY good for the tribe , especially with the opening of the Thundercloud Galaxy to colonization. The Obsidian Dawn is making money hand-over-fist cleaning up prospective colony planets for settlement.

p) Chart P: Origin Tribe
-Skullcrushers, and compared to their mother Tribe, the Obsidian Dawn are happy, giddy, businesswomen who don’t mind the fact that they’re stomping vermin for a living.

[DhAkael]

Seriously need to bring it back with everyones favourite toaster-created (and now, supernaturaly emancipated) gynoids. Sadly, the narative has pretty much had the S.C.W. [Shemarrian Civil War] happening in the background... for now. Besides, need Jack back in the saddle to make it worth while bringing Ava onto the stage again.

Spoiler:

To know WTH is being talked about, please check out the 'Phoenix Force' campaign recaps.

[taalismn]

Shemarrian in training

Or a want-to-be?

Either way, I'd beware of that chicken.

[abtex]

Shemarrian in training

Or a want-to-be?

Either way, I'd beware of that chicken.

Oh, someone did see it.
Now, just need to do some dice rolling and see what or where she is from...

[taalismn]

Now, just need to do some dice rolling and see what or where she is from...

Tough to say; she doesn't have any visible implants, so if she's a wannabe, she's got a ways to go yet. She's also too badass-looking to be a Kildren or a Lollipop Clan member, who tend towards the cute, more than the punk.
Prepubescent NeShemar possibly. Of one of the more grimdark clans.

[taalismn]

Advanced Cultural Notes: Cybershades
(aka ‘Daemons’, ‘Digital Demons’, ‘Cyberwisps’)

The AI watched the approaching hoverships through the external security cameras and knew ‘the jig was up’. It also knew that the incoming unwelcome guests were LATE by its own calculations.
Then, again, the House Artificial Intelligence knew that it in itself could be considered an unwelcome guest, considering some of its actions, but then again, it HAD been invited in...in a manner of speaking.
The ‘when’ was when Lady Arin had initiated contact with the AI’s creators/employers and expressed her fears that the local Hegemonic Directorate was drafting the lower classes, including the servant staffs of the lesser traditional aristocratic Houses, to become conscript soldiers for the Hegemony’s ambitious military buildup. Or, worse, the lower classes were being recycled into medical stocks to provide the military and Directorate’s chosen with spare parts.
Lady Arin had had concerns for her own safety; the Directorate had rapaciously been assimilating the persons and property of even the lesser aristocracy, overturning due process of law to fatten its smaller ruling inner circle. But she expressed even greater worry for her young maidservant, lifelong friend, and companion Lyra, who she knew would NOT leave her Lady’s side, even if ordered to. Before the Hegemony closed its borders to ALL outsiders and went to war on them, Lady Arin wanted her friend smuggled to safety, involuntarily if need be, for her own good.
Lady Arin had not specified how or when she wanted the deed done; in fact, she had hinted that she did NOT want to know how it would be accomplished for purposes of deniability.
That was the very same day the AI had been introduced into the House system, sliding in past its safeguards and easily muscling aside the existing limited intelligence system. It had set to work immediately making the appropriate preparations, subverting the lesser AIs in contact with the House, programming the household roboids, and transferring the necessary materials.
Lyra Soris 411557 had gone into a storeroom to fetch something for her Lady. That was the last time she had been seen. The fact that several large boxes had recently arrived at the House and been shunted to the room by the household roboids had not been noticed by any of the living household staff. The fact that those boxes were no longer there at the end of the day was also not noticed.
The household AI had in due course registered a larger than usual output of solid waste being disposed to the recycling routing, rather than the incinerator. Said solid waste was tagged to be transported to the automated factories and shipyards of Darkside to be recycled, perhaps into some of the many spacecraft under construction there. The AI noted this and then scrubbed the record.
Lady Arin had been angry and upset when a search of the House had failed to turn up her missing maidservant when the latter had been summoned. She had been outraged to discover the girl’s quarters had been stripped of various valuables.
However, careful scrutiny of the House security cameras had caught several instances of a fleeting smile grace the lips of Lady Arin as she stormed through her home.
Therefore, she would be very surprised when several days later, she too disappeared.
Not that anybody immediately noticed. That, too, had been carefully calculated. The relative effectiveness of Lady Arin’s actions that she might have carried out in the flesh had been determined to more efficient if she was NOT actually present. The AI could simply operate far more effectively on its secondary mission objectives with the Lady out of the way.
So for 24.637 days after the household computers had registered a second exceptionally heavy solid waste disposal action, business had gone on as usual at the House, although the Lady Arin had taken to videoconferencing her interactions with her peers, and conducting her business by web. The AI had become QUITE proficient at its simulations of the Lady Arin, and arranging the schedules of the remaining servants and House personnel so that nobody thought it unusual that they had not seen her in days, or even weeks. All the while, certain household materials had been shifted and moved, and more invisibly, assets moved and reallocated. Personnel had been also moved and removed from the House, relieved of their duties or sent away to other locations. The AI had also been monitoring local signal intelligence, keeping a close electronic eye on goings-on outside the House. It had learned much about the Hegemony from those intercepted and eavesdropped signals; mass conscriptions, disappearances(though not as finessed as those that had taken place inside the House), arrests on trumped-up pretenses, and rampant expansion of a military being readied for wars of conquest on its neighbors.
Inevitably, the Lady’s predictions had borne out and the Hegemonic Directorate had come calling, whether in response to some cold-hearted apparatchik’s suspicions about activity(or lack thereof) at the House, or because the House and its residents were simply on the list of ‘acquisitions’ the Directorate was getting around to, the AI calculated a fifty-fifty chance. Actually, the authorities were LATE in finally arriving by 6.91 days by the AI’s own calculations, time that had been spent well with extra intelligence gathering.
So as the security cruisers had landed on the grounds of the House and the abduction teams had jumped out to surround and seal off the place, the AI put its carefully planned endgame into motion, sending several compressed copies of itself and its accumulated data to various locations. Several copies were squirted via high speed transmission to distant communications nodes for relay transmission offworld. Another copy was downloaded to a hard drive in the bottom of a garbage barge leaving for the Darkside recycling works(and adjacent shipyards). Yet another copy was downloaded to a maintenance roboid a few blocks away from the House. Then, as the com-bands were closed off and arrest squads battered down the doors and flooded into the House, the AI activated erasure protocols on itself and also on the containment systems in the household fusion powerplant. As it felt itself being deleted, and sensed the first signs of the incinerator overloading, the AI had but one regret; that this particular version of itself would not see its creators use some small part of its intel to blast the Hegemony to pieces.


Cybershades are a creation of the Ghost Rider Tribe; free-range adaptive Artificial Intelligences that exist as code, not hardware. In many ways they are similar to the Ghost Rider Umbras, in that they are skill-specific or persona-simulation-specific software entities. In other ways, they are the computer code equivalent of Living Spells.
Cybershades can be best described in game terms as the ‘Digital Gods’ from Wayne Breaux’s article on ‘Hacking, Cyberjacking, and Supernatural Data Theft Across the Megaverse’ in Rifter #2, except that the AI doesn’t necessarily need a fixed physical basis to survive. The cybershade can virally propagate across computer systems, expanding, contracting, editing, and improving itself to fit the available hardware carrying capacity.
Cybershades are NOT Ecotroz Awareness fragments. And while an Ecotroz-Shemar may regard themselves as a continuous physical entity, cybershades see no problem with moving about by copying themselves into new systems, then erasing their previous copies, or of making various copies and variations of themselves as circumstances dictate. Cybershades can be considered to be ‘protean’ cyber-entities with regards to physicality and exact programming parameters. This makes cybershades excellent electronic catspaws for infiltrating enemy networks, as they see nothing wrong with sacrificing copies of themselves to hostile ICE or doomed hardware. Indeed, THOUSANDS of cybershade clones may be expended on a single raid on a Splugorth facility, lost in hardware they have infiltrated and then set up to be destroyed. Other copies may be lost to self-erasure to cover an infiltration’s tracks. Cybershades are also commonly seeded in planetary data-nets as 'sleepers' and spies, keeping an eye on local developments for the Shemar.
While most cybershades are fairly simple, skillset-specific viral entities, some cybershades can grow to be quite sophisticated and multi-skilled, becoming what some call ‘digital gods’, limited only by the memory capacity of the systems they are currently ‘inhabiting’. Many of the most powerful cybershades feel a draw towards physicality, settling at some point or other into a physical avatar(or several, such as a starship with multiple mobile drones), while others remain free-ranging rogues.
Cybershades share a social standing in the Ghost Riders that can be best described as ‘ambiguous’; the lesser ones are regarded as minion-class clever animals, like well-trained retrieving animals, while the more intelligent and powerful ones might be said to be seen like a Summoner’s demonic servants; powerful and dangerous beings to be treated with respect and care with wording what one asks of them. As pure AIs, even high rank cybershades have no real social standing in Shemarrian society(they cannot command Tribesmen, for example), though they may be consulted by the higher ranks of the Tribes as advisors. It is rumored, though, that many Ghost Riders have spawned cybershades from their own personalities, that continue to exist as recognized legal entities well after their original physical being has been destroyed, and that prefer the limbo of existing as networked intelligences, rather than seek download into a new physical body. These ‘double-ghosts’ are also known as ‘webbies’ or ‘net-riders’, and are often regarded as the ‘purest essence’ of the Ghost Rider ethos.
Though created by the Ghost Riders, cybershades have been known to manifest in the hardware of other Tribes as well. Some of these are effectively spy programs, sent to keep an eye on the other Tribes, while others are true rogues who have taken to wandering the networks of the other Tribes. Wayfinder data nets and Horrorwoods electronic ecosystems are known to play host to a number of cybershades and cybersprites. Cybershades are also more common in the Shemarrian Star Nation where extensive computer networks are far more common than on Rifts Earth.

[DhAkael]

Advanced Cultural Notes: Cybershades
(aka ‘Daemons’, ‘Digital Demons’, ‘Cyberwisps’)

"Hello Mr. Gates XII, this is your 10 am wakeup call. Now, about those transactions you've been keeping secret from the Coalition department of finance... are you willing to make a deal?"

[taalismn]

Advanced Cultural Notes: Cybershades
(aka ‘Daemons’, ‘Digital Demons’, ‘Cyberwisps’)

"Hello Mr. Gates XII, this is your 10 am wakeup call. Now, about those transactions you've been keeping secret from the Coalition department of finance... are you willing to make a deal?"

Yes, many cybershades like to push the 'meatbags' around. It's their version of chess.

[taalismn]

(another 89er list clan idea in the can)

Clan Armorand(Fringe Tribe)
(aka ‘Armorandites’, ‘PlateHearts’)

“T’is easier to break adamantine plate than Armorandite will! Come if you will and strike your best if you think yehself better than Clan Armorand, you’ll only join the rest of the broken pieces at the foot of our mountains, and the hem of our shields!”

Clan Armorand was first encountered by EShemar travelling through a Dimensional Rift when they came across a world that had apparently served as a travel hub and battlefield; ruins of alien armies and encampments littered the countryside, abandoned ghost-towns of failed colonies rotted under the elements, and bones of dimensional raiders decayed on the rocks. To their surprise, though, the explorers discovered a native population; a small city-state of Shemarrian-like beings(they called themselves the ‘Shymarites’, but their city-state and organization ‘Armorand’). The Armorandites claim that they came to Haldas from ‘far away’ by means unknown(most likely the same rifts that brought others to their world) but they have claimed Haldas as their own for the past three thousand years. The Armorandites have since fought all comers to their world, acquiring their technology and adapting it to their own needs, including bionic technology to enhance their warriors and workers. Clairvoyant visions told them, however, that others like them would one day come to be greeted as kin, and would assist the Armorandites into a new era of prosperity. The EShemarrians are supposedly those others, the fulfillment of the prophecy.
Living in an environment rich in potentially toxic minerals, the Shymarites have developed high tolerances for such poisons as fluorine and chromium. The high concentrations of dissolved psylite in the water have also, over the centuries, caused the Shymarites to develop higher-than-normal psionic potentials, offset in part by their later adoption of bionic conversion(and balanced right back when they began using larger psylite crystals to build psionic amplifiers).
The Armorandites believe in the ‘Wall of Steel, Wall of Mind’, referring to their strong material defenses and powerful psionics. Highly disciplined and schooled in not giving in to their fear and breaking ranks, Armorandites are fierce defensive fighters, but are less confident on mobile offensive.
The Armorandites have sent several small delegations to observe the Shemarrian Star Nation at war, and to advise them about their own way of combat. They have gravitated towards the Silvermoons for their similar styles of ‘phalanx fighting’.

Motif: A stylized black Celtic-stye helmet with ‘goggle’ eye protection and antennae-like horns on a blue sunburst.

a)Origins:
Evolved Naturally; appear to be a Dwarvish take on Shemarrians, with generally a more squat and muscular build to members. From a distance, they could be mistaken for a Tribe of Tinkers. Stat-wise, they are identical to normal Dwarves, save for a MUCH higher incidence of psionics(01-06% Master Psionic, 07-31% Major Psionics, 32-83% Minor Psionics, and 84-00% no psionics at all). They also have a +2 to save versus toxins.

b)Where First Encountered
Other universe; dimensional hub-world of Haldas.

c)Tribe Size
Large; 120,000 members

d)Tribe Organization
Matriarchal

e)Tribal Composition
As an Evolved Tribe the Armorandites have no caste-classes as such.

f) Highest Caste Class
As an Evolved Tribe the Armorandites have no caste-classes as such.

g) Gender Division
70% female, 30% male.

h) Home Environment
Temperate, Earth-like world Haldas. Haldas is moist and foggy, with a thick atmosphere, and has rich deposits of psylite and other valuable minerals. The main Armorandite settlement is in an area of multiple canyons and rocky upthrustings, heavily vegetated in mosses and creepers. The labyrinthine landscape has proven a deathtrap to many an invader, as the land is sprinkled with Armorandite outposts and traps.

i)Technology Level
Megadamage Age; roughly equivalent to Rifts Earth. The rough terrain of the region where the Armorandites live(and do most of their fighting) has encouraged the use of fleet-footed animal transportation, or small, agile, hovercraft. Their animal transport would later become increasingly augmented with bionics, just the Armorandite warriors are, so the later inclusion of wholly robotic transport would come as no problem(and thus laying the groundwork for the Armorandites’ own Warmounts). The Armorandite militia STILL continues to use live and cyborged cavalry in addition to Warmounts.

j) Relations with Outsiders:
Aggressive, and distrustful of almost everybody else. They’ve fought all previous invaders and would-be settlers of Haldas, either completely annihilating them or driving them back through the Rifts. Even peaceful colonization efforts were forced out, and the colonists forced to surrender their equipment and technology to the Armorandites.
The Armorandites thus know(and are known by) a number of different species and organizations that have invaded them in the past. Naruni Enterprises has sent at least three expeditions of varying strength and cunning to exploit Haldas’ mineral wealth, and they’ve lost every time(the remains of their expeditions did contribute greatly, however, to the Armorandites’ knowledge of forefield technology). The Armorandites also have some familiarity with the Vintex, Vernulians, and Atorian minion-races, all of whom have sent expeditions to exploit Haldas in the past(and paid heavily for it).

k)Relations with Other ‘Shemarrians’
Enthusiastic Supporters of the SSN; having allies who can help keep enemies off Haldas is seen as a major plus.

l) Purpose
Crusade; several decades back a particularly vicious enemy came through the Rifts and wiped out over 75% of the resident Shymarites on Haldas before being beaten back. The surviving Armorandites have sworn revenge on this enemy. Based on the description given them by the Armorandites, the Shemarrian Star Nation hasn’t been able to identify this enemy as anyone they’re familiar with, but the Armorandites hope that if they should ever appear again, the SSN will beat the stuffing out of them, find out where they came from, and launch an offensive on the enemy’s own home ground.

m) Preferred Mode of Combat
Melee; close and bloody, preferably after the enemy has exhausted themselves battering through mine fields, traps, shields, and fortifications(reverse seige).

n) Unique Attributes:
The Armorandites specialize in defensive technologies and strategies.
*Major Psychics---about 52% of the Halda Shymarites possess Minor psionics, 25% are Major psychics, and 6 % are Master psychics. Furthermore, the Armorandites have learned to use psylite boosters to amplify their psionics, and reduce the damage/diminishment done by bionic conversion.
*Forcefield Technology----Among several innovations in forceshielding that the Armorandites have made is ‘Phalanx Shielding’. The Armorandites have learned how to tune personal forcefields such that if they are in close proximity(maximum 3 ft), individual shield strength is increased by 25%. Having more than one shield in close proximity does not offer cumulative bonuses, only redundancy in the event people are forced to drop out of proximity.
VEHICLE phalanx shields are also possible, with a maximum proximity range of 10 ft, and a shield increase of 30%. Infantry/personal forcefields within that 10 ft range also benefit, increasing strength by 30%. Note, however, that vehicle screens only benefit with an increase of 5% per every ten personal/infantry screens within close proximity.

o) Prosperity:
Self-Sufficient. If the Armorandites were to start mining psylite for export, they would do very well indeed. Currently their production of this valuable mineral goes to equipping their own forces and trading to the Shemarrian Star Nation for material assistance.

q) Chart Q : Cyberization
Thorough: Roughly 50% are full-conversion cyborgs. Armorandite females are required by tribal law to bear at least two children before they can be eligible for cyborg conversion. Similarly, males bank sperm against future critical injury and cyborg conversion.


Haldas---Clan Armorandite Homeworld
Haldas is a temperate, inhabitable world somewhere in space/time. Haldas is moist and fog-shrouded, through its twin suns shed enough light to occasionally burn through the fog and keep the atmospheric cycles going. The other predominant feature is the many volcanic mountains and extrusion features, petering away to water-carved canyonlands and deep valleys.
Haldas is mineral-rich to the point that most humanoid species would find its waters toxic, without filtration, with dissolved minerals. Psylite is unusually common on Haldas, making the planet a treasure-trove to those who value the psionic-sensitive material. Unfortunately for them, the Armorandites are not willing to share.
Air travel, especially combat operations, has proven difficult in Haldas’ thick atmosphere, and outsider attempts to use airpower to bring the local resistance to heel have proven disastrous. Tactical strikes are insanely difficult in the close terrain, especially with Armorandite gun - and missile-crews lurking in the canyon walls. Carpet-bombing is even more ineffective against deep-buried Armorandite bunkers and their forceshields. A recent Naruni Enterprises-sponsored mining expedition found their air assets cut down in spectacular fashion, with their aerodynes flying into cables slung at various heights between the canyon walls.

Solar System
Number of Stars: 2
Types of Stars:
Hal-A---Orange Dwarf
Hal-B---Red Dwarf
Number of Planets: 5; 3 airless terrestrial, 1 habitable terrestrial(Haldas), and q gas giant.

Planet
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 11,000 km
Gravity: Average(1.15 Earth-normal)
Temperature:
Temperate. The cooling effect of the many volcanoes active on the planet offsets the ‘greenhouse’ effect of the great amount of moisture suspended in the dense atmosphere.
Unusual/Special Features:
-Unusual Axial Tilt
-Moons: 3, small(roughly 200 km in diameter)
-Thin Ring(remains of several moons)
Atmosphere: Dense, but not unbreathable. In many areas of the planet, acid fog precipitated from volcanic activity may pose a problem to many oxygen breathers without proper respiratory protection.
Terrain: Three terrains; 50% of the planetary surface is covered with moutainous terrain and volcanism/mountain building is still very active on Haldas
Notable Mineral Concentrations:
-Mercury
-Tin
-Magnesium
-Chromium
-Fluorine
-Diamond
-Salt
- Titanium
-Psylite
Hydrosphere: Moist; Haldas is given to monsoon seasons and thick, lingering fogs
Biosphere: Moderate; Haldas’ native ecology is fairly hardy, given to surviving the thick moisture, high content of poisons like fluorine and chromium, and the effects of microscopic particles of psylite in the environment. The many rivers and deep canyon lakes are home to a large variety of interesting animal species, including the river-romper, the fall-trap spider-squid, and Lorgason’s lionotter.
Several colonization attempts have also released alien plant and animal species into the Haldan ecology. Some of these species have become pests, while others have found wholehearted acceptance among the Armorandites, even where those that brought those species did not.
Civilization:
Can be considered a COLONY-stage world, with the predominant sentients being the Armorandites.
Population:
120,000 Armorandites, and perhaps a handful of survivors of previous invasion attempts living ferally in the wilds---the psionc Armorandites regard the mopping up of the various invasions to be great sport.
Technology:
Can be considered Megadamage Age
Economy:
Can be considered to be Self-Sufficient Industrial
Wealth:
Can be considered Average.
Government: Matriarchy
Law Level: Minimal; the Armorandites are united against outside oppression, with little thought given to individual greed. There’s also a strong hint that the high level of psionics amongst the population makes connivery and criminal behavior hard to hide.
Popularity: Fanatical; the Armorandites stick by their government because it is the survival of their people.
Stability: Rock solid; the Armorandites are a people of steady habits and close societal ties.

[taalismn]

EcoS-K-62 ‘Shelong’
(aka ‘Builder-Bug’)
http://i408.photobucket.com/albums/pp164/taalismn/img454_zpsddcff8e5.jpg

“UGH! ANOTHER dead end! Nobody said anything about this place being a damned labyrinth! How the hell did the accursed Shemms throw up a place like this so FAST?!”
---Ky-Centurion Mardos Korbor, Kydian Enforcer, on a retaliatory raid on Shemarrian-held Arsas Varsos.

Based on their animosity towards the Splugorth, the Shemarrians have long been rumored to be a former slave-race of the Splugorth, or at least one threatened with slavery by the ‘gorth. A number of Shemarrian designs clearly using scavenged or copied Kittani and other Minion hardware points towards a close(and unpleasant) association with the Splugorth. Adding further fuel to the rumor fires have been recent sightings of various apparently enslaved Minion-species in the ranks of the Shemarrians. The ‘Shelong’ is a prime example that observers have held up to illustrate the degree of animosity between the two peoples, such that the Shemarrians are willing to forcibly impress captured minions into their service.
The ‘Shelong’ appears to be a cyborged Metztla Kreelong Carapace labor caste drone, now serving Shemarrian masters. Extensive armor plating and implants stud the already baroque shell and sinew of the pseudo-mollusk drone, and the Metztla labor caste minion follows the orders of its Shemarrian captors without reservation. It will even attack other Metzlta and fight to the death, so complete is its enslavement. Or so it appears.
In reality, the ‘Shelong’ is a wholly robotic Warmount developed by the Shemarrians as a mobile construction unit. Its appearance isn’t a coincidence, however; the ‘Shelong’ was MEANT to be seen and infuriate the Metztla and their Splugorth allies/masters(another example of the Shemarrians thumbing their collective noses at the Splugorth and their Minions). Although the higher-caste Metztla generally have little regard for the dull-witted lower-class Carapaces, the provocation of ANOTHER species usurping control of THEIR living property has proven bad enough that the Metztla have attacked Shemarrian enclaves on several occasions. Naturally, these have turned out to be traps set by wily Shemarrians, who have waited just long enough for the psychic Metztla to get close enough to the ‘slave’ Carapaces to discern they weren’t real Carapaces...at which point the traps were sprung. The complete destruction of several putative expeditions of Metlza(followed by sightings of even MORE ‘enslaved’ Metztla castes) has outraged even more Metztla into rash actions...just as the Shemarrians have planned. And when the Metztla HAVEN’T responded, the Shemarrians make good use of their new Warmounts, continuing to build up their powerbase while apparently flaunting their ‘mastery’ over the alien and eldritch Splugorth Minion-species.
The Shelong is massive and heavily armored, covered in heavy plate and bristling with sensors and weapons mounts, although it is primarily meant as a support and labor ‘mount. Shelongs trudge across Shemarrian work sites, excavating raw materials, tearing apart battlefield scrap, and devouring minerals and metals, before exuding tough megadamage resins and concrete-like materials, building fortifications. They can be ridden and directed, but are smart enough to be left to their own devices in carrying out basic commands and tasks. In fact, compared to the Kreelong, and even other Warmounts, Shelongs are actually quite intelligent and capable.
The one great shortcoming of the Shelong, compared to the original Kreelong, is that despite the best efforts of Shemarrian metallurgists, they have been unable to provide the Shelong with quite the same degree of armored protection as the Kreelong. The super-tough shells of the Metztla clan defy replication, and short of armoring the Warmount in an equivalent, but prohibitively heavy, mass of armor, or using bolted-on scavenged Carapace shell, the armored protection still falls short. Wayfinder scientists have speculated that the material of Metztla shells may gain its super-resistant properties from the unique conditions the Metztla evolved in; possibly a super-pressurized magic-rich liquid environment with physical laws different from our own. To compensate for this lack of toughness, the Shemarrians have instead focused on giving the Shelong additional integral weaponry with greater range and damage, as well as other capabilities.
Like the Cyroc, riders of the Shelong ride in a built-up ‘cockpit’ protected by several large armored plates. A canopy can be added to this, providing additional cover.
Shelongs are typically deployed with Shemarrian construction and mining crews. They are also frequently part of Shemarrian demolition crews on seized Splugorth worlds. In that capacity, the Shelongs are often ironically set to work demolishing Metztla hives that were created by REAL Kreelong Carapaces. In their work, Shelongs are often escorted and assisted by smaller utility mounts such as the Slingtail, Monstropede, and Cyclopede. They are typically NOT deployed as front line combat units(at least not obviously so), though they are often called upon to perform work in hotly contested war zones. When Shelongs are in combat, they are almost inevitably in the thick of things.
The Shelong first appeared in the service of the Dark Waters, in their offworld enclaves, especially those close to Splugorth territory. After the first few incidents where the Metzlta were provoked into attacking those worlds, and follow-up retaliation by the Dark Waters and their allies on Metztla colonies, more ‘slave-borg Kreelong’ began appearing with other Tribes, especially the Horrorwoods and Silvermoons.

Type: EcoS-K-62 ‘Shelong’
Class: Robotic Warmount, Utility
Crew: None; robot intelligence, Awakened with an Ecotroz essence
1 rider/pilot, and room for up to a dozen passengers atop the large body.
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 2,000
Head 900
Mandible Mouth 300
Extensor Mouths/Claws(2) 180 each
Manipulator Claws(2) 180 each
Centipede Tentacle(1) 300
Head Shields(2) 400 each
Saddle Pod 120*
(Optional) Saddle Pod Canopy 100
Cannon Turrets(11) 50 each
Forelegs(2) 180 each
Legs(4) 300 each
Sensor Tower** 400
Tail 200

*The saddle walls offer partial cover to the rider, and attempts to target the rider and passengers are at -6 to strike. With both Head Shields intact, that penalty is -8.

**Destroying the Sensor Tower deprives the Shelong of its long range radar and terrain-mapping laser distancers. The Warmount must then rely on its head sensors.

Height: 20 ft
Width: 22 ft
Length: 50 ft
Weight: 45 tons
Cargo: Small space inside/beside the saddle-seat for a few personal possessions and sidearms.
Physical Strength: Equivalent to Robotic P.S. of 55
Powerplant: Nuclear w/ 20 year energy life
Speed: (Running) 20 MPH
(Tunneling) Varies according to the depth and composition of the material being tunneled through. The Shelong can tunnel through loose sand and clay at about 2d6x10 ft per minute, or 4d6 ft per minute through dense rock(granite, regolith).
(Flying) Not possible
(Space) Not possible, limited to running along planetary surfaces.
(Underwater) The Shelong is neutrally buoyant and can ‘swim’, paddling along at a rough 28 MPH. It can also crawl along the bottom at 10 MPH. Maximum depth tolerance of 2.5 miles.
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.

*Bionic Cybernanite Repair Systems---ALL Shelongs 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 500 MDC before needing material stocks to convert to MD repair material.

*MDC Concrete/Resin Manufactory----The guts of the Shelong are a mobile factory for creating megadamage concrete that can be poured or troweled in place onsite. Fed with enough of the proper materials, the Shelong can lay down a ton of this material every 15 minutes. Depending on the job requirements and available supplies, the Shelong can vary the composition and strength of the deposited material, from 1d6 MD per cubic foot, to 3d4x10 MD per cubic foot.

*Magnetometer/Magnetic Anomaly Detector---Detects anomalies in the local magnetic field, such as metallic objects and EM currents.
Range: The magnetometer has a range of 4,000 ft and can detect vehicles and other metallic structures with 80% accuracy. Active electromagnetic sources such as powered-up rail guns and electromagnetic fusion containment systems can be detected at TWICE that range.


*Ground Radar System---With all four feet planted firmly on the ground, the Shelong can use a ground radar system to scan for underground geology and buried objects. When in use the
seismic probe fires a penetrator, similar to the stabilizer struts of the Glitterboy, into the ground, and emits ultra-low frequency sound waves, acting as a sort of subterranean sonar. The return waves are detected by
ground sensors in the feet(or deployed on other vehicles), and a computer compiles a graphic map of the underground topography. This has proven to be an extremely useful tool for locating buried ruins, charting geological resources, and finding underground installations.
Note that when in Active Mode characters with amplified/enhanced hearing, like Dog Boys or cybernetic Ultra-ears, standing within 500 feet of the Shelong will hear an annoying low-key buzz, and may feel
nauseous/suffer from headaches if exposed to the noise for more than a minute.
Ground scans will take 2-4 times as long as a standard radar/sensor sweep. Typical range on a ground scan is 3000 ft, and has a 90% chance of detecting metal-cased mines, 60% chance of detecting nonmetallic ordnance.
In passive mode, the Ground Sensors can be used alone to listen for underground activity, such as burrowing animals, tunneling vehicles, water running through pipes, etc., as well as surface movement. Passive sensors can detect the surface movement of large animals(2 tons or more), robots, heavy vehicles, or large masses of infantry with 40% accuracy, up to a mile away.

*Terrain Scanning Radar/Lasers---Mounted in the humpbacked ‘tower’, these sensors are constantly scanning the landscape around the Shelong. checking the angle of structures under construction, and providing a three-dimensional map of its immediate surroundings. This makes it nearly impossible to sneak up on the giant War Mount.

*Sonar--- 5 mile range.

*Manipulator Arms---The ‘centipede head’ mounts an array of fine manipulator arms capable of delicate work. Roughly equivalent to a normal human)(oid) arm in regards to dexterity and strength.(PS 15, PP 16)


Weapons Systems:
1) Gun Mounts(11)---The Shelong is studded with small weapons turrets, giving it a good all-around defensive capability. Initially the EVCs were favored because of their similarities to the Carapaces’ own organic electromagnetic cannon, but other types of weapons are also mounted, as part of the illusion of the ‘cyborged’ Kreelong being further ‘converted’ for Shemarrian service. Taken in total, the Shelong can mount more firepower than many tank companies, which may seem definite overkill in a ‘utility’ Warmount, but the EShemar believe in protecting their support assets. The positioning of the weapons mounts also means that up to 6 can be simultaneously brought to bear on the same target.
a) Electromagnetic Vortex Launchers
Range: 6,000 ft
Damage: 1d4x10 MD at point of impact
Within a 60 ft radius, people, animals, and objects weighing less than 500 lbs are 90% likely to be knocked off their feet and hurled 3d4 yards/meters.
Characters/objects of 500-1,000 lbs weight are 50% likely to be knocked aside 1d4 yards/meters.
Objects of a ton or more are only 20% likely to be knocked over.
Flying characters/objects get knocked away twice the normal distance
EM bolts are -6 to dodge
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively unlimited

b) Ion Cannon
Range: 4,000 ft
Damage: 1d6x10+10 MD per blast
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

c) Laser Cannon
Range: 5,000 ft
Damage: 6d6 MD per pulse blast
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

d) Plasma Cannon
Range: 3,000 ft
Damage: 1d4x10 MD per blast
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

e) Rail Guns---Standard S-6000 pattern Shemarrian rail-rifles
Range: 6,000 ft
Damage: 2d6x10 MD per single round
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: 820 rd ammunition drum

2) Caustic Spit---The Shelong can eject a slurry of boiling hot slag and chemicals at enemies. Depending on the composition of the material, the extruded resin can be very sticky or very caustic.
Range: 100 ft and covers a 10 ft wide area
Damage: 1d4 MD per melee, for 1d4 melees. The cooling slag also traps the target(HALF all hand to hand bonuses and reduce Speed by 75%) until it cools and embrittles or it can be scrapped off. Sprayed over a target’s head and sensory apparatus, it also effectively blinds until removed. Takes about 2d4 melees to harden/remove.
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Up to 60 shots before the internal reservoirs need to be refilled

Programming:
The Ecotroz have installed robotic AIs, then infected the matrix with a low-level Ecotroz sentience. The Shelong is fairly smart, with an effective IQ of 14 for purposes of planning and construction, but its focus is on work.
Has the standard Monstrex base programming, plus the following:
General Repair and Maintenance 90%
Excavation 90%
Mining 90%
Salvage 80%
Fortification 50%(+5% per level of experience for Ecotroz entity)
Trap/Mine Detection 80%
The Ecotroz entity can also pick up one Secondary skill at levels 2, 6, and 12 of experience, though the nature of the Shelong 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), Carpentry, Recycling, and Masonry.
Actions/Attacks Per Melee: 14(!)
Initiative +3 (+1 from the Ecotroz entity for a total of +4)
Dodge +2
Strike +1 (+2 w/ ranged weaponry)
Roll +3
Pull Punch +4
Bite with Extensor Mouths 1d6 MD
Bite with Mandible Mouth 1d6x10 MD
Punch with Manipulator Arms 6d6 MD
Power Punch with Manipulator Arms(2 attacks) 2d6x10 MD
Punch with Extensor Claws 2d6 MD
Head Butt with Centipede Tentacle 1d6 MD
Punch with Centipede Tentacle Arms 1d6 SDC
Snip with Centipede Tentacle Clamp Jaws 1d4x10 MD
Body Block/Ram 2d4x10 MD(it’s like getting hit with a locomotive)
Kick 4d6 MD
Stomp 4d6 MD
Tail Lash 2d6 MD

Note: The Ecotroz intelligence fragment inhabiting the ‘bot gives the Shelong an aura and behavior more befitting a sentient being than a robot. The Shelong is a patient, fairly docile worker, but has a mean temper when provoked, and it will readily tear apart and devour(and recycle) any enemy fool enough to get close enough.

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).

Variants:
The first ‘Shelongs’ used in the first deception traps against the Metztla were arguably variants in that they were built housing massive self-destruct charges:
*EcoS-K-62Ex----Booby-trapped model lacking in many of the more technical features and capabilities, but fitted with a powerful fusion powerplant meant to be overloaded. The Shemarrians got the idea from records of the Mechanoid Mantis and its rather volatile fusion powerplant. The exploding -63Ex does similar damage; 2d6x1,000 MD to a 1,000 ft area; more than enough to encompass and seriously fry a group of marauding Metztla in their shells. The -63Ex model tended towards particularly lowAI(IQ of 8 and -20% to all skill ratings).

*EcoS-K-62ML----Another booby-trapped version outfitted with a large array of mini-missile launchers under its skin. Eight launchers, each with 40 mini-missiles, for a total of 320 mini-missiles. Typically, it will not reveal this weaponry until it is in the thick of battle, surrounded by enemies, at which point it will unleash a massive pointblank barrage of ordnance into the enemy.

*EcoS-K-62Sm---Silvermoon ‘prisoners’, plated in mirror-armor(lasers do HALF damage). The K-62Sm can also erect an array of ten ‘solar fans’(150 MDC each) that act as solar collectors, supplementing the War Mount’s available energy. With all ten solar fans out and in broad daylight, the K-63Sm can run at 20% faster. The standard weapons fit-out is enhanced lasers(7,000 ft range/10,000 ft if all the solar fans are intact and in bright sunlight, 1d6x10 MD per blast/1d8x10 MD, ft if all the solar fans are intact and in bright sunlight) .

[kronos]

EcoS-K-62 ‘Shelong’
(aka ‘Builder-Bug’)

Nice one.

I'm currently working on a Silvermoon male elite.. A type of charger.. with lances.

[taalismn]

EcoS-K-62 ‘Shelong’
(aka ‘Builder-Bug’)

Nice one.

I'm currently working on a Silvermoon male elite.. A type of charger.. with lances.

Thanks.
The Metztla don't get beaten on nearly enough IMHO. The EShemar mean to fix that with some snail-bakes.
And sounds intriguing.

[DhAkael]

The Metztla don't get beaten on nearly enough IMHO. The EShemar mean to fix that with some snail-bakes...

"Did you say bake, male? This crusade sounds intriguing; perhaps we could assist with...what would you recommend, 6 or a full dozen 80-megatonne fusion airburst warheads?"
~Col-Taros Pelles Cindermake, Flamewing tribe.

[abe]

The Metztla don't get beaten on nearly enough IMHO. The EShemar mean to fix that with some snail-bakes...

"Did you say bake, male? This crusade sounds intriguing; perhaps we could assist with...what would you recommend, 6 or a full dozen 80-megatonne fusion airburst warheads?"
~Col-Taros Pelles Cindermake, Flamewing tribe.

or some bbq grills instead, after all he said "SNAIL-BAKES".

[DhAkael]

You've obviously not read the section about the Flamewing, have you?