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Y'know; I remember a time when the Sisters of battle used to actually be...I dunno, they were still zealots, but at least they were calm and methodically zealous.
Then 3rd. ed. came in and they no longer were independant, they became part of the Exclisiarchy.
-sigh- *raises pint glass* "To the Sororitas; victims of the retcon."

Special thanks to Glitterboy2098(Mark Temple) for his Ender’s Cluster playground and its inhabitants. Just wanted to pit the EShemarrians against the Chor’ii and this seemed like a fair scenario.
For more details on his Ender’s Cluster, see: https://sites.google.com/site/thetemplegrounds/Home/phase-world-annex/enders-cluster

For details on the Chor’ii, see: https://sites.google.com/site/thetemplegrounds/Home/phase-world-annex/enders-cluster/the-chor-ii-totality

Evales (aka ‘MeatGrinder’)(Horrorwoods Enclave World)

“Vermin. Those creatures are vermin! They pollute the skies, they pollute the land, they pollute the waters. They take and they eat and contribute nothing to the natural order of things. That they use tools and fly in starships makes no difference; they are vermin, plain and simple. The Green Mother rejects them. They are an infection on this world, and the Green will burn them out, blast them from the skies, throw them into the sun, where at last they will contribute something in the form of a bit of fuel to light the eternal night! If we must turn every plant and every animal to the purpose of exterminating these Chor’ii vermin, it will be done. If nothing short of a direct hit and burning can stop these regenerating bacteria, I shall aim the cannon and apply the torch myself, it shall be done! If I must decapitate and bisect every one of them myself, it shall be done! In the end, the Green must triumph, and it will be this world that feasts on the piled corpses of the vermin! This shall be done!”
----Col Taros Marga Thessaly GreenFury, Horrorwoods Tribe, Evales Enclave.

“If I must eat the war-killed corpses of my own get we shall have this world and all on it! Nothing shall deny our destiny, nothing shall deny us food, and nothing shall stop our advance! This world’s meat belongs to us the living and not to the not-living that opposes us! If they shall not fill our stomachs, they shall feed our industry! If they shall not nourish our bodies, they shall be the bones of our machines!”
----FamineMaster Chree’tol, Chor’ii War/Acquisition-of-Fresh-Food Director, Keng’rii’ol’szen(Relliac Dotzan First Armada)

Evales is a remote outpost world of the Shemarrian Star Nation on the edge of the globular cluster known as Ender’s Cluster, an ‘island galaxy’ of the Thundercloud, and is a holding of the Horrorwoods Tribe. Like most of the Horrorwoods’ preferred enclaves, Evales is a temperate, richly biologically-active world with a fecund ecosystem. Evales was already slated to become a refuge world, and a large contingent of eco-engineers had arrived onsite to establish the Horrorwoods’ signature ‘eco-mechology’ of cybernetic plants and animals integrated into the local ecology.
Unfortunately, not long after the Horrorwoods engineers had set to work, they learned that Evales was smack in the path of a massive Chor’ii fleet.
The Shemarrians had not had any prior contact with the rapacious Chor’ii(the majority of the Shemarrian Star Nation’s holdings were much farther away in the Thundercloud Galaxy), but they learned enough from scattered contacts with other peoples in the sector of what they were like. Evales’ rich ecology would be a veritable smorgasbord for the hungry Chor’ii, who would eat the planet bare in their quest for forage, before using the planet to step off to other inhabited worlds. The Horrorwoods were not about to surrender Evales to such galactic locusts, but the Tribe was never particularly strong in terms of their space forces, and Evalas had not yet received a full orbital defense net.
The onsite EShemarians used their available transport starships to evacuate their organic NeShemar back to the distant SSN and to drum up reinforcements. Their few warships were set to work setting minefields, or harrying the approaching Chor’ii armada. Meanwhile, the development teams were hard at work weaponizing as many different types of local life as they could, ‘seeding’ the planet’s ecology with disguised War Mounts and boobytraps to kill unwary invaders.
While diminutive and fairly technologically primitive compared to the Shemarrians, the Chor’ii have the advantage of numbers...sheer bloody numbers. Despite the best efforts of the small Shemarrian spacefleet, they couldn’t prevent the Chor’ii from landing on Evales. Waves of Chor’ii war machines and infantry simply overwhelmed the defenses of the few obvious settlements on Evales, charging into the fields of fire of the defenses, and climbing over the mountains of their own dead, before choking the Shemarrian guns with their corpses. The EShemarrians abandoned their surface settlements, but not before destroying them and countless Chor’ii, but that still left the Chor’ii in possession of the field. The Chor’ii have simply settled down, cleared the space for their transports to land, and eaten their own dead, before setting out to claim the rest of the planet.
Currently the Horrorwoods is running a guerilla war campaign against the invaders. The EShemar have abandoned their surface settlements for concealed subterranean redoubts where they manufacture fresh weapons of war. On the surface, they perform hit and run raids on Chor’ii camps, and try to lure the invaders into kill-zones seeded with disguised warmachines and mines. Random packs of disguised ‘feral’ War Mounts and critterbots maraud along the edges of Chor’ii encampments, or allow themselves to be hunted by Chor’ii foraging parties before turning on them. Meanwhile, the Chor’ii have settled in and work to fortify their holdings, strip-mining the land to produce new weapons(though their factories immediately attract counter-strikes), all the while sending large expeditions, supported by what few vehicles and spacecraft they can spare, to find food and hunt down the enemy.
While the EShemar and their creations are easily equal to many hundreds of their foes, there are so MANY Chor’ii to kill, and in enough volume, even the primitive Chor’ii weapons can take down armored Shemarrian constructs. Though the Shemarrian space flotilla has managed to kill most of the Chor’ii armada’s nuclear weapons carriers, the Chor’ii still have a number of tactical nuclear weapons which they have been using on the surface on suspected Shemarrian force concentrations. Furthermore, though flimsy compared to the armored gynoids and their War Mounts, nothing short of a direct, full-body trauma strike will kill a Chor’ii, the short-statured cannibals quickly regenerating from near-strikes and concussive blasts. This has led to a protracted struggle with the ultimate outcome very much in doubt.
The Horrorwoods could simply nuke the infestation off Evales, but the ‘Green Tribe’ is constrained in what measures they can take, as they don’t want to destroy the very thing they have set themselves to protect. Thus, the hidden industrial enclaves of EShemar are forced to wage a guerilla war using a boobytrapped ecosystem against the Chor’ii. Daily, disguised War Mounts and ‘feral’ cyberbeasts take a hideous toll of Chor’ii in the field, but the damn Chor'ii KEEP COMING. Word has spread back to the Chor’ii High Command of the riches of Evales, and they are determined to take the planet for their larder, regardless of the cost. The resistance put up by the unseen sentiences of Evales means to the Chor’ii that the planet MUST be vital, and thus worth conquering. This translates into several waves of Chor’ii inbound to reinforce the foothold, giving the planet’s hidden defenders little in the way of breathing room between successive waves of slaughter.
For their part, the Chor’ii have come to name Evales ‘the Planet that Eats’ in reference to how the local ecology seems to devour Chor’ii armies. Among the EShemar, Evales has become known as ‘Meatgrinder’ for the strategy used against the seemingly endless hordes of invaders.

The Horrorwoods on Evales are hard-pressed, and they fear that if their fortified subterranean enclaves are ever discovered, they will be the targets of the strategic nuclear weapons the Chor’ii command is known to be hoarding for just such an eventuality. The Horrorwoods have already made the painful decision that they will fight to the bitter last, destroying themselves and as many of the enemy as they can. They have also made the heartbreaking decision that if it comes to it, they will deny the Chor’ii the use of Evales. Several ‘doomsday scenarios’ have been formulated by the EShemar, including unleashing hordes of nuclear- and radiologically-armed Warmounts into the ranks of the Chor’ii, and also setting off ‘earthquake bombs’ along Evales’ fault lines, setting off continent-wide disruptions and intensified planet-wide volcanic activity. Provision has also been made to transmit as much knowledge as has been learned about the Chor’ii so that future encounters between the two species will go in the favor of the Shemarrians.
This is if reinforcements do not arrive in timely fashion. A fleet from one(let alone several) of the more space combat-oriented Tribes could EASILY wipe out any Chor’ii armada sent at Evales, and buy time for the damaged planet to be fortified with the sort of orbital and systemwide defenses that could turn away SPLUGORTH fleets. However, reinforcements have been slow in coming from the Thundercloud in part due to the Shemarrian Star Nation not having ready access to the faster Tannhouser Gates that would greatly expedite the arrival of a relief force, forcing the Shemarrians to come by other slower means. But the Shemarrians will NOT abandon the Evales enclave, and a force WILL arrive, and if they cannot save Evales, they will avenge it.
In any case, Evales will be written off as a refuge world. Even if the planet is saved, if will be regarded as too vulnerable to continued Chor’ii assault as long as the cannibals exist. In any event, Relliac Dotzan 312 will become a war base for any future SSN actions against the Chor’ii Totality.

Solar System(Relliac Dotzan 312)
Number of Stars: 2
Types of Stars:(Relliac A) Yellow Dwarf
(Relliac b) Red Dwarf
Number of Planets: 5
-RDotzan A Terrestrial(Evales)---Life world
-RDotzan B Gas Giant(Khalide) ( Enormous: 480,000 km diameter) Blue-Green and brooding, cold Khalides with its retinue of ten moons has become the forward staging area of the small Horrorwoods starfleet conducting hit and run operations against the Chor’ii armadas infesting the Relliac Dotzan system. A small mining and refining operation on one of the moons has been hastily retooled to produce missiles and mines, as well as fuel and spare parts for the Shemarrian spacecraft, and several other smaller sites have been converted as well. For their part, the Chor’ii have begin to twig to the fact that their current enemies may be using the gas giant as a base and the invaders have sent several flotillas of their own to investigate. None have returned, destroyed by superior Shemarrian technology and cunning.
-RDotzan C Gas Giant(Average: 88,000 km diameter)---RDotzan C and its eight moons saw little development aside from scientific and mineralogy surveys prior to the Chor’ii invasion. Now, it’s being looked at as a fallback position for the fleet, with a small automated mining/fuel-collecting facility being upgraded in the field to produce in volume for the Shemarrian flotilla’s needs.
-RDotzan D Terrestrial/Rocky(Average: 10,000 km diameter)---A cold lifeless world of little interest, except now the Horrorwoods flotilla commander has ordered a survey done of the possibility of using the planet’s resources in the war effort.
-RDotzan E Terrestrial/Rocky(Enormous: 100,000 km diameter)---This enormous rocky world has high gravity but only a thin, unbreathable, methane atmosphere. It’s also cold as hell, and uninhabitable to anybody other than machines. As with the other planets, RDotzan E is being reevaluated as a possible resource world for the Shemarrian defense of the system.

Planet
Type: Terrestrial
Diameter: 11,000 km
Gravity: Low; Mars equivalent.
Temperature: Temperate on the warm side.
Unusual/Special Features:
-Rings---Evales has a thin ring system from a possible small moon(or moons) that broke up several million years ago. The rings help reflect some heat from the two suns, but of more recent concern, the rings have interfered with the Chor’ii establishing an unbreakable orbital blockade. The rings have also been extensively mined with explosives by the Shemarrians, and the passive defense network still takes a toll of Chor’ii orbital assets. In retaliation, the Chor’ii have been using some of the larger fragments in the ring as kinetic bombardment weapons against suspected EShemar encampments on the planet below.

Atmosphere: Dense, but breathable. Frequent violent thunderstorms are common.

Terrain: Dominated by three terranes; large wet basins and wetlands, large highland plateaus, and rocky mountain ridges.

Notable Mineral Concentrations:
- Colombite
- Chromium
- Antimony
- Mercury
- Barite
- Calcite
- Platinum
- Nickel

Hydrosphere: Balanced; roughly 40% of Evales is covered by open water. The atmosphere is extremely moist and humidity-saturated.

Biosphere: Verdant, with multiple ecological niches and advanced lifeforms, including large herbivores and carnivores.
Infiltrated into this richness is a second ‘mechology’ of disguised and networked replica plants and animals manufactured by the Shemarrians as both industrial assets(solar and wind power collectors) and military resources(sensor nets and guerilla warfare units).
Immediately around the Chor’ii beachheads, however, the ecology has been rapidly stripped down and devoured, or else has been blasted away by warfare.

Civilization:
-Evales is currently a warzone hotly contested between the resident Shemarrian eco-engineers and the rapacious Chor’ii invasion and occupation force.

Population:
-75,000 Shemarrians of the Horrorwoods Tribe, mostly (75%) Tinkers, Acolites, and Males involved in preparing the planet for NeShemar colonization.

-25 million Chor’ii invaders.

Technology:
The Shemarrians have a substantial edge in technology, but not the numbers to exploit that edge against the seething hordes of Chor’ii invaders.

Economy:
Currently Evales only imports(against the Shemarrians’ will) Chor’ii population surplus. If Chor’ii pelts had any value(and they didn’t eat their dead fur, bones, and all), the Shemarrians could be stockpiling a most bountiful fur supply.

Wealth:
Evales could be a rich agricultural world, but the full resources of the colony are now turned to fighting the invaders. As the war wears on, and more damage is done to the environment, the prospects for a rapid recovery are dimming fast.
Government: Militocracy---Both sides are operating under military command.

Law Level:
Warzone; effectively lawless outside the Shemarrian redoubts and Chor’ii command posts. Given the tendency of Chor’ii to EAT law offenders and their own wounded, the most civilization can be found with the Shemarrians.

Popularity:
The Shemarrians and the Chor’ii HATE each other. The Horrorwoods hate the Chor’ii for despoiling a beautiful planet, and the Chor’ii hate the Shemarrians for not being edible and also for being poisonous to boot. The Chor’ii also abhor the Shemarrians for teasing them; so many succulent-looking animals that turn out to be utterly inedible, either because they kill Chor’ii by the shipload, or because when killed their carcasses insta-decay into indigestible melted plastic and metal rust.

Stability:
Currently the situation is stalemated; the Shemarrians are slaughtering the Chor’ii by the thousands every day, but the Chor’ii keep coming. The Shemarrian factory-redoubts remain hidden, but the Chor’ii are doing recon the old fashioned way by flooding the landscape with millions of infantrymen. Short of deploying weapons of mass destruction that would quickly render large swathes of Evales desolate wasteland, or receiving massive reinforcement, the Shemarrians cannot quickly or permanently dislodge the Chor’ii from the planet. The Shemarrians also have to be careful to boobytrap every single piece of their hardware and all of their personnel, lest the Chor’ii capture any Shemarrian technology and reverse-engineer it.

Primary Energy Source:
The Shemarrians have been using geothermal taps and well-shielded fusion generators in their redoubts.
The Chor’ii are burning lumber, coal, and other materials supplemented by nuclear fission power piles brought with their landing craft.

Primary Source of Transportation:
The Shemarrians use their tunneling gear and War Mounts for travel on-planet.
The Chor’ii use their landing craft for point-to-point travel, and ground and hover vehicles, but mostly slog around on foot.

Security/Fighting Force:
Every one of the 75,000 Shemarrians on-planet now can be considered combatants, plus an estimated 350,000 cybernetic warbeasts in operation. The Horrorwoods also have a small force of spacecraft(two Kumo-rodosha Medium Cruisers(fleet tender conversions), five Unipelta Light Cruiser/Transports, eight Goshawk Corvettes, and three Rhinochon Medium Multipurpose Transports), but all are running low on projectile munitions and are stretched thin hunting down Chor’ii starships in the system and destroying them).

Outside Threats:
Currently, the 25 million+ Chor’ii invaders, plus an estimated additional 50 million in the next wave, about a year’s time away. Hints of yet ANOTHER wave of similar size behind THAT have also been detected.

i always love it when someone take one of my ideas and has fun with it.

at some point i'm going to revisit Ender's cluster, getting the ground weapons of the Chor'ii finished up, the Sherdena warships, ground gear, society, and Phenosculpting, and the half dozen other races and societies i've got notes and images for but haven't written up in any form.

of course, my notes on the Phase World techmanual get more and more coherant over time too (it helps that our understanding of quantum physics is opening up lots of stuff i'd relegated to handwavium before)

sadly, my brain generates ideas faster than my life provides time to actually write up properly.


edit:
it's also worth pointing out that the 2nd wave of 50 million soldier-colonists is only about 120 fully loaded Den Mother Transports. half that if its loaded with 'civilians' instead of 'soldiers'. and the real problem isn't the transports, it's the 8400 Striking claw landers, which carry the actual Chor'ii invasion.
i wish the Shemarrians luck, they are going to have one heck of a fight on their hands..

Heck, even the Skullcrusher would have problems.

ironically, if it wasn't for their ability to accelerate at ~60 m/s^2, and the 600km+ range of chor'ii ship weapons, individual Shemarrians could bring down chor'ii warships using little more than those boomgun like rifles. the landers would be even easier, but even those can accellerate at ~20m/s^2.
and the sheer numbers would still be a huge issue.

Chor'ii really live by the idea that quantity has a quality all its own..

The Shemarrians' best bet is to take the Chor'ii out in deep space, and use force multipliers like 'dumb' robots en masse. Also use long ranged area of effect attacks like high-cee mass driver attacks that go cluster-shot just before reaching the target. Like big canisters of sand accelerated up to a good percentage of light speed.

Now, a really NASTY megadamage alien species(think Splugorth-levels of nastiness) who acquired a taste for Chor'ii meat might delight in finding a way of decapitating the little bastards, then storing the bodies just below freezing, using the Chor'iis' own redundant regenerative abilities to retain just that lingering touch of life and keeping the steaks wiggling on the plate.
Of course, having such a species come in to deal with a Chor'ii problem has its own attendant drawbacks. It's not like gribble-grubs to snackfood*.


*Gribble-grubs---If you've ever read Keith Laumer's Retief series, gribble-grubs are a running joke in the CDT. If you haven't: a gribble-grub is a large-ish alien grub and parasite of the hoop melon(a staple crop of the sticky-fingered Groaci species). Gribble-grubs have beautiful prismatic fur coverings, which can be harvested for quite stylish textiles, and which the grubs molt off quite frequently. The problem is, gribble-grubs breed faster than tribbles and Chor'ii combined, and they can wipe out entire planetary crops easily(and after which their furs become worthless due to the glutted market). The Groaci are reduced to destroying the crops and grubs in thermal gas vents for convenience...which is when a Terran diplomat staked out on the lava plains discovers, in his delirium, that sulfur-smoked gribble-grubs taste GOOD, which results in the Groaci economy getting saved by the new snack-food industry....the profits from which they promptly plow back into their next Red Menace-style plot to unseat the Terrans as the premiere power of the galaxy.

huh, i don't remember that one. i never checked the wiki-article, but it turns out there are stories that aren't in the Baen Books free library ebook. just great, now i need to track them down. great stuff.

Indeed. Keith Laumer gave us two great archetypes: BOLOs, and Jame Retief, debonaire two-fisted galactic diplomat.

Groaci Soldier: "Halt, vile Terry! Wait, you look like that infamous miscreant Retief!"
Retief: "There are over thirty billion Terrans spread across the galaxy. The odds of a particular one standing here contemplating stuffing you into a garbage dumpster are at least thirty billion to one."
Groaci: "....hmmmm, you're right! Okay, Terry, you get off! But I'm going to keep one of my eyes on you!"
Retief: " It seems the laws of probability are in abeyance today."(proceeds to grab the Groaci soldier by the neck, disarm him, and stuff him into the dumpster)

Hope Brightlance as of 5th level after her 'Rite of upgrade' goes through.

Presently being played in this campaign; http://palladium-megaverse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=115582

Kids, even god-children, grow up so quickly these days.(tear in his eye).

Reminds me; I need to do something with ole' Tylax the Mink-souled sometime.
She's been outta the limelight for a while.

Follow the trail of broken hearts and dehydrated bodies...

You said it... I didn't

That sounds... Interesting!

Whoopsie doodle!
Yesterdays up-load of Hope Brightlance had her new slim-trim weight in the technical stats, but not in her profile.
It has been corrected (link is still valid in previous post).

Amazing what they're doing with carbon buckyball composites these days...

heh.
*gets ebil idears*
I'll let you know how things progress after this weekends game session.
Tylax may be reappearing sooner than anyone realizes.

"Did somebody say 'Party'? I brought the 'favors'!"

Sadly, due to a number of interuptions IRL for a couple of my players, the game session moved VERY slowly this week.
Thus, the time-displaced Shemarrians of the (pun intended) fledgling S.S.N. will have to wait their turn in the spotlight.

I'll get back to making more stuff for the girls in giood time myself...I've been concentrating of late on my other flagships, building up reserves of posting karma .

I know 'Palladin Steel' has been going strong lately.

And I've had to report on interstellar corporations as well....

I was just thinking... and going through the thread quickly.. I don't remember (unless I missed it) the Wolf Path have an elite.. like the Sapphire Cobra's Naga, etc..
What if the Wolf's Path had an elite that could turn into a were-wolf like form?
Using nanite factories and metamaterials that alter shape/size through electrical stimuli to get bigger and features change to more wolf-like. Also when the change happens strength should be enhanced somehow.. magic? Safety locks on the muscle systems that unlock when change forms, allowing full use of even greater strength? Various built in melee weapons appear when change (fangs and claws).

Just thought the Wolves could use some loving and a new toy.

Nope, they don't. Not yet, any way. And yes, I've considered that(at least lightly), as well as special Wolves that can combine into exo-armor and/or a giant humanoid.

Nice to see us thinking along similar lines.

Well the idea came to me in a dream actually.. cyborg werewolves. Then I thought.. HEY! Shemarrians! Also.. Wolves that combine to form a giant humanoid.. Shemarrian Voltron! That would be awesome!

89er, in some of the original Lost Eclipse snippets, mentioned toad-like critters in an ambush. Well, here they are...

Ecotroz Shemar ‘Bursk’ Guard-Animal
(aka ‘Pog’)

SMASH!
SCHLAP!
“EEEE(mfpht!)”
TWWWAAAAANNNGGGGGG
“(MMMFFFPPPHHH!!!)”
!GULP!
“Good boyyyyy.....”
“You know, we could have captured her BEFORE she went into her apartment unit? Waiting until she was in the shower, THEN smashing through the wall with the Bursk tongue, grabbing her, then hauling her screaming back outside, that’s just plain mean-spirited.”
“Yes, but at any other time she might have been armed. She’s one of the CS’s acknowledged experts on psychochemical warfare agents; she surely has personal protection, especially when she’s visiting an outpost like this place.”
“That’s your story and you’re sticking to it?”
“Yes.”
“Very well. I’ll scoff at your thinly-disguised sadosexual tendancies later. Now let’s get out of here before her security detail wakes up.”
http://i408.photobucket.com/albums/pp164/taalismn/img308.jpg

Seen only in nightmarish glimpses in encounters with the Lost Eclipse, the Bursk has been described as a ‘giant demonic burrowing toad’ by those who have survived the experience. In reality, the Bursk is a robotic watch beast created by the Nightmares.
The Bursk bears an uncanny resemblance to an otherworldly creature known on the Palladium Fantasy World as the Gullikin(see Land of the Damned One Chaos Lands pg. 35-37, the better illustration on pg. 110), so much so that it must be that members of the Lost Eclipse had either encountered the species(which should raise concerns, seeing as the creatures are not KNOWN to live on Rifts Earth) or acquired detailed accounts of the Gullikan from somebody else. In either case, the Lost Eclipse has adapted the traits and body form of the Gullikin to a robotic watch beast, making a few (mainly cosmetic) changes to the creatures’ appearance.
The Bursk resembles a massive walking frog or toad head with stubby arms, short thick legs, a tadpole tail, and a giant mouth, the whole covered in a slick, slimy amphibian’s skin.
The Bursk’s main weapon is its prehensile tongue, a retractable telescoping appendage as strong and dexterous as an elephant trunk, only a lot more dangerous. The tongue can lash, punch, entangle and constrict, or can pull skin off with its adhesive pads on its end.
Because of the Lost Eclipse’s love of messing with the minds of live prisoners(since dead ones aren’t nearly as fun), the Bursk has the ability to take prisoners, using its tongue to entangle enemies, inject them with powerful sedative chemicals, then reel them in to trap them in a stomach-like capture pouch for later leisurely interrogation by the Nightmares. The entire process can prove particularly disturbing and unhinging for the prisoners, especially if they think they’re being devoured alive. The Lost Eclipse typically uses this tactic to mentally soften up prisoners before interrogation and/or mindwipe to cover the exact nature of the attack and its perpetrators.
The Bursk fills many of the same roles as the Shemarrian Wolf with regards to defensive operations. It is typically deployed in areas where the presence of Shemarrian Wolves might present an unwelcome tip-off to outsiders that there are Shemarrians in the region. Bursks often hide along approaches to a Lost Eclipse enclave or cache, typically in concealed burrows, waiting for intruders to pass by, whereupon they will spring out in ambush. Bursk are also used like giant mechanical beavers for making crude field fortifications, digging hideouts, and damming or bridging waterways. Thus far, it has been encountered ONLY with the Lost Eclipse; no other Tribe is known to make use of them.
No blatantly robotic versions of the Bursk are deployed by the Lost Eclipse; all examples are disguised in fake skin as live organic creatures.
http://i408.photobucket.com/albums/pp164/taalismn/img307.jpg

Type: EcoS-KRP07LE ‘Bursk’
Class: Robotic Warbeast/Watchbeast
Crew: None; robot intelligence
A rider MIGHT be able to hang on to the back of the Bursk, but this is really uncomfortable and precarious seating, and the Bursk is rarely used as a riding animal.
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 120
Throat Pouch 120
Tongue 100
Eyes() 30 each
Arms(2) 80 each
Legs(2) 90 each
Height: 8-10 ft
Width: 5-6 ft
Length: 5-7 ft
Weight: 750 lbs
Cargo: Can hold up to 300 lbs of gear inside its enormous mouth.
Physical Strength: Equivalent to Robotic P.S. of 30
Powerplant: Nuclear w/ 20 year energy life
Speed: (Running) Not terribly fast as Shemarrian robots go; 25 MPH
(Leaping) The Bursk’s deceptively short legs can bounce the ‘bot up to 12 ft up and 15 ft across.
(Climbing) The Bursk is a poor climber, only able to climb at 35%
(Burrowing) The Bursk is expert at quickly burrowing through soft earth, able to dig at a rate of 6 ft per melee.
(Flying) Not possible
(Space) Not possible
(Underwater) Can swim at 13 MPH, or run along the bottom at 6 MPH. Maximum depth of 3,000 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( 20 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.

*Faux Looks----The Bursk is meant to look like a flesh and blood creature with a fack skin and musculature. It’s as ugly as its inspiration, though, with a P.B. of only 1d6.

*Bionic Cybernanite Repair Systems---ALL Bursk 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 90 MDC before needing material stocks to convert to MD repair material.

*Throat Pouch---The Bursk’s mouth is fitted with an elastic pouch of elastic megadamage fabric, lined with memory-mode fibers, similar to that mounted on another Lost Eclipse robobeast, the EcoS-K-33 Arzach. The pouch can expand to hold oversized payloads, then tighten up to enclose them securely for safekeeping against water, mud, and other damage. This also serves as an effective restraint for involuntary passengers in the pouch, the fabric holding them like a straitjacket with a P.S. of 30. If the prisoner(s) has a weapon ready to hand, they can cut or blast their way out(the fabric has an MDC of 120), but will likely have to deal with an angry BUrsk on the way out.

Weapons Systems:
1)Combat Tongue---Actually an incredibly long and strong bionic tentacle, tipped with a molecular adhesion pad for grappling onto objects and people. It can narrow to a spear-like point, or spread out to a wide flat surface, the better to stick objects(and people) to like a stick’um board.
Range: 18 ft
Damage:(Punch) 2d4 MD
(Lash) 1d6 MD
(Constrict) 2d4 MD
(Adhesive Tear) 1d6 SDC

2) Bite---The Bursk has a massive mouth with powerful jaws, meant to lock and enclose prisoners, but also capable of snipping off a limb or biting through a wall in one action.
Range: Melee
Damage: 5d6 MD on a bite

3)Claws----The crude hand-paws of the Bursk are fitted with retractable vibroclaws for cutting debris, shoveling dirt and rock, and slashing opponents at close range.
Range: Melee
Damage: 3d6 MD on a slash

4) Eye Lasers(2)---The Bursk’s eyes can project laser beams. This is typically used as a weapon of last resort, however, as the Nightmares do not wish to reveal the true robotic nature of the Bursks.
Range: 500 ft
Damage: 1d6 MD per single blast, 2d6 MD for both eyes firing simultaneously
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited
Bonus: + 2 to strike(+4 to strike total)

5)(Optional) Poison Bite---Some Bursks are fitted to deliver a nematocyst-like sting with their tongue, delivering a chemical venom directly into an entangled target. This is typically a paralytic agent or hallucinogenic toxin.
Damage: 1d4 SDC, plus chemical effects.
Payload: Up to 40 doses of up to 5 different chemicals.

6)(Optional) Adhesive Spit---Taking a cue from such Warmounts as the Aracha and the Cyclopede, the Bursk can be fitted to generate a sticky, quick-setting polymer adhesive that it can exude as a milky-white spit. This can be used to glue together masses of wood, stone, and other debris as part of field fortifications or dams, or it be used to encase prisoners and glue them to trees and boulders. These so-called ‘glue pots’ or ‘glue-pogs’ can be distinguished by multiple blisters along their backs(actually the nanopacs synthesizing the adhesive).
Range: Can spit up to 25 ft. A spit-glob covers roughly 3 ft of surface in icky, sticky, mess.
Damage: None. Anyone caught in the goo must have a supernatural or robotic PS of 30 or better to break free; otherwise they are stuck until the goo is somehow removed. To completely cover a human-sized target, the attacker must roll a 12 or better on the strike roll, otherwise only a limb is glommed.
The epoxy sets within seconds, and can be used underwater. However, the sprayed epoxy needs 1d4 hours to properly cure, at which point it attains its maximum strength.
Epoxy has 2d4 MDC per application, but hardens to 2d6 +1 MDC after curing for 1d4 hours.
Rate of Fire: Can spit a one pound glob of adhesive goo in a single attack, ECHH
Payload: Can generate about twenty-five pounds of resin per hour.

7)(Optional)Smog Breath---Called ‘Fog-Pogs’, Bursks outfitted thusly can generate a dense obscuring chemical fog similar in composition to pre-Rifts theatrical ‘fog’. Though not toxic under normal conditions, the chemical fumes DO obstruct vision, and can provide quite the distraction, especially if multiple Bursks are pumping out the fog.
Range: Can cover a 90 ft area
Damage: None. Those caught in the fog are -4 to strike, parry, dodge, disarm, and entangle while caught in the cloud. Depending on local air current conditions, the cloud disipates in 2d6 minutes.
Rate of Fire: Can pump out a 90 cubic ft of vapor cloud per melee
Payload: Can generate 1,000 cubic feet of fog-mix per hour.

Programming:
The Ecotroz have installed robotic AIs, then infected the matrix with a low-level Ecotroz sentience. The Bursk has a chimpanzee-like intelligence and attitude; roughly playful and curious, but capable of lapsing into berserker-like fury in combat.
Typically has the following:
Basic Math 98%
Radio: Basic 98%
Prowl 72%
Tracking 60%
Land Navigation 86%
Wilderness Survival 88%
Camouflage 78%
Language: Can understand 22 different languages
Excavation 60%(+5% per level of experience for Ecotroz entity)
Military Fortification 60%(+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 Bursk 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 , +3 underwater
Strike +2 (+2 w/ ranged weaponry)
Parry +2
Pull Punch +2
Roll +2
Disarm +2
Bite 5d6 MD
Restrained Claw/Punch 1d4 MD
Punch 1d6 MD
Claw 3d6 MD
Kick 2d4 MD
Body Block/Tackle 1d4 MD
Leap Attack(2 attacks) 2d4 MD

Note: The Ecotroz intelligence fragment inhabiting the ‘bot gives the Bursk an aura and behavior more befitting a sentient being than a robot. The Bursk entity is fairly smart and cunning, with a monkey-like intelligence(roughly equivalent to an IQ of 7). Its speech is limited to grunts, belches, beeps, growls and hoots.

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)

Note also that the Ecotroz-possessed ‘bot can infect other bots with the Ecotroz viral-entity, by bite or sustained touch(takes 3 attacks).

Evil as always sir *polite clap*

No, evil is debating whether I should do a straight-out combat llo...or base it on the fluff intro text....

Now here's a funny turn of events. One of the PC's in my current game, a M.O.M. / Crazy, is fascinated by the Shemarrians (and butterflies; don't ask) & this was how he was intro'd to the team.
He's just hit 2nd level and gotten his first insanity; Phobia to robots espcially humanoid-styled androids / gynoids.
This should be...entertaining!

Oh good grief! Is it at least the run and shoot kind of fear and not the the run and scream in terror kind! LOL

Give him a Fear of Intimacy, then introduce him to the Minx...start rolling buckets of dice for catatonia...

MIND READER!!!

"Great...now he's scared of both androids AND women...shall we work on ANY sort of intimacy at all?"

Some more xover silliness while working on more serious stuff:

More Familiar Faces: Easy on the Eyes, Tough on the Wrists:

The Blood Rider War Chieftain strode through the halls of the EShemar starship, a brief glance and nod acknowledging the various lesser Shemar parting before her, the various Darkwater, Wayfinder, and her own Blood Riders on this expedition making way for the war leader. She stopped before the armored portal to the detention bloc, pausing only to share a wordless moment of silent consultation with the blond Tinker-Scientist there at a work station, while the War Chief's retinue of Warriors took up position around them.
Satisfied with what she had shared communication-wise with the Dark Water, the War Chief turned, as the armored hatch hissed open and she strode through, into the more humid, warmer, oxygen-rich environs of the detention bloc.

The captive spread-eagled on the exam couch in the center of the cell strained and pulled at her restraints, gritting her teeth to no avail as the bonds refused to even budge, let alone miraculously part and allow her to escape. She suddenly became aware that she had company as a tall vaguely female-shaped form, clad in black- and red-armor, stepped into view and silently regarded her.
Tossing her long purple hair defiantly, the prisoner snarled, "What do you want?! I'll tell you nothing, you alien freaks! You'll get NOTHING from me! We survived Second Impact, we survived the Impact Wars, we survived the Angels, we survived SEELE, we survived Third Impact, and we're going to survive a bunch of pissant aliens come to bother us, so save your breath trying to get me to tell you anything except how you're going to LOSE! So save your breath, you extraterrestrial vultures!!"
The tall alien leaned into the light around the pinned captive, the same light that picked out the prisoner's sweaty features now highlighting the alien War Chieftain's. Angular black and red armor, broad shoulders, tall height, three tendrils dancing around the head, and the pointed ears all bespoke of the otherworldliness, but the facial features, the set of the expression, the long purple hair, all looked very familiar to the now suddenly quiet prisoner.
They were her own.
The EShemar War Chieftain picked up a scrap of discarded red uniform from the floor and leaned in closer to stare in her smaller organic doppelganger's eyes and spoke in an even, measured tone that brooked neither interruption nor disobediance. "Let's talk, Misato Katsuragi, about REBUILD THREE-POINT-OH."

*grabs pop-corn, soda and pillows.*
Das Qro; "This is gonna be good."

Have you SEEN the new character art for Misato? She dresses like either a bellhop or a holiday nutcracker!

And yeah, I'm still toying with Shemarrian 'equivalents' like I did for the Sailor Scouts. All I got so far(no last names yet):

Misato---Blood Rider War Chieftain
Ritsuko---Dark Waters Tinker/Scientist
Asuka---Blood Rider Warrior
Kaji---Wayfinder Male Shemar
Maya Ibuki---Dark Waters Acolite(although toying with making her a DOMIMATRIX...it's the quiet ones)
Rei----Wayfinder Psi-Shamaness Pathfinder(or possibly a new class; she's the Progen offspring of a Shemmarian scientist, Yui, perhaps, and an alien AI)...freaky abilities implied.

But it's light stuff while I'm working on something even ....better... Text pretty much done, line art sketched and awaiting scanning and coloring.

Oh, and Codex Shemar updated. Shredwing post entry spellchecked and corrected.

Once I have the campaign going a-pace and the sucke -ahem- I mean loyal players and their PC's in a dramaticaly correct location, they are gonna be in for a shock when they encounter Tylax again; 10 years older, a Chiefteness & with a dynasty of progen born.
And the real kicker is, the last time they saw her (game time) was only 2 - 3 months previous.

I will be sure to link the hijinx from my campiagn re-cap thread to here when it occurs.

P.S.; I will also rough out Tylax's family when I have time, and NOT coughing out yellow goo every 10 minutes (first cold of the year, and it is a doozey )

You have my sympathies. Rhinoviruses hit like rhinos, and I'm STILL hacking(dry heat doing its worst, combined with residual mildew probably....it's a wierd combination)

And Tylax has PROGENY?!
Dear god, I wonder if I should imply that Rei's one of them in future(non-canonical) skits(whatever I come up when I'm driving long distance/stuck in traffic and getting bored, which is where most of these snippets originate). Tylax: "Well, there was that one-night stand...which lasted eight centuries in virtual time.... with the BOLO...Or was that the giant interstellar Doomdsay Machine? Or the Guardian of Forever? That was sorta an intense couple of years for me."
Other Shemarrians: " "(start edging backwards)

(Yes, older, more mature Tylax could be messing with their minds...but they can't be CERTAIN)

With the Mink-souled? NO ONE can be certain of anything...or anyone, she mentions. Like Cpt. Harkness; "Animal, vegtable, mineral? I'll give anything a go at least once..."

That goes beyond even rishathra....

Ok.. Now I have an image of Capt Harkness singing I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General... only at parts he's flirting with women, men or other genders of different species as he's singing.

That's the SECOND reference to Gilbert and Sullivan I've encountered this week(the first was a discussion that led to a look-up of the lyrics of 'The List' from 'The Mikado').

At least your contacts and conversations tend to be with informed, cultured and educated people...who also happen to be twisted so&so's at times.

Most of my social contacts are librarians...Oh yeah...festering hotbeds of guerilla intellectualism.

You say this as if it is a BAD thing

I should have fresh art and updates up by tuesday. Very productive weekend!

Ok, I must have missed something. Who is this "Mink-souled one" of whom you two speak? She sounds very... Interesting, and dangerous in a Fem-Fatale sort of way.

I don't have all the details of her, as she's DhAkael's creation, but she's one of the EShemar who's gone beyond personal development as in "I long to be free" to "I want to have FUN!", like a teenager discovering personal freedom, as well as what those extra parts are supposed to do. The running gag is that since the Eshemar have discovered Progen, which combines reproduction(previously accomplished by Awakening other Shemarrians or by laboriously building new androids and Awakening their programming) with recreational( if virtual) sex, Tylax has been eager to experiment, cyber-sutra style, with as many combinations as she can.

Tylax the Mink-souled is...um -ahem- she took to having "fully functional" sensorium and physiology when awakened EXTREMELY well.

Ooooh, she DOES sound fun!