EcoS-K-40 ‘Cyclopede’ Warmount(aka ‘Hooverbeast’, ‘Suctron’, ‘Syphonar’)
http://i408.photobucket.com/albums/pp164/taalismn/img289.jpg “We make our stand here! They’ll have to take down these thick walls first to get at us in h-”
SSSSSHHHHRRROOOMMMM(“UUGGHHHHH!!!”)
*THOORRRKKK!* “MILNER!”
“...oh $#!+...they have a gopher vac...”
ZZZZHHHRRROOOOOOOMMMM*SCHLOOP!* “EEEK!”
SSSSSHHHHRRROOOMMMM(“AAAIIIEEE!!!!”)
*ZOORP!* “You know, it’s almost worth it to see Susa stripped to her boots like that.”
“Yeah, but that leaves just the two of us...”
“See you on the other side, Doug, hope they don’t treat us too badly.”
“Same to you, Gart.”
VVVVUUUUURRRRRRROOOOM(“ACK!”)
*PHOOORT!* SSSSSHHHHRRROOOMMMM*PHUONT!* The Cyclopede is a bizarre Warmount that many Shemarrian-watchers believe originated in the Nightmare Tribe. In fact, the design originated in the Horrorwoods, and has spread, in limited numbers, to the other Tribes, especially those involved in tunneling, construction, or salvage.
The Cyclopede enjoys an ambiguous status among the ranks of other Warmounts. The EcoS-K-40 was not originally developed as a Warmount, but as a utility drone like the Mooncalf. However, its ability to mount light weapons, and its deployment in an antipersonnel role by several of the Tribes has elevated it to the nominal status of Warmount. Rather than a warmount that was modified for utilitarian duty, as with the Monst-Rex Pack Mule, the Cyclopede is a utility robot that has been promoted to Warmount. However, most EShemarrians regard the EcoS-K-40 more as equipment than as a companion, and the Cyclopede is not commonly Awakened with an Ecotroz-fragment essence.
Essentially the EcoS-K-40 is a walking high powered pump, used primarily in construction and salvage work. It’s built tough to handle the extremes of the Rifts environment, and those off Earth, as well as any predators and other hostiles who might wish to interfere with Shemarrian efforts. The Shemarrians have just chosen to make it fully robotic and semiautonomous so it can do its job better. Then they added basic combat programming so it can defend itself.
The Cyclopede resembles the bastard offspring of a giant mosquito and a high-tech industrial vacuum cleaner, with a dose of octopus thrown in. A multi-segmented body is borne on six insectile legs, with a bug-eyed head, central thorax, and a large abdomen trailing behind. The foot pads on the legs are hooked and shaped so as to allow the Cyclopede to clamber over rough terrain, climb up and down mine shafts, and negotiate excavation sites to get into position.
The head sports a small thicket of tentacles and tendrils, but the most prominent appendage is a large long extendable tube-tentacle, made of tough and very flexible artificial myomer, sprouting from the nose of the Cyclopede. The tentacle is as flexible and agile as an elephant’s trunk, and serves much the same purpose. The end sports a fringe of flexible tendrils used to feel around, and grasp small objects. A ring of small simple robotic optics allows the Cyclopede to use its trunk to spy over walls, out of water, or into narrow spaces. The trunk is also hollow, and serves as a suction conduit, assisted by peristaltic action in the myomer sheath’s walls.
The main suction driver is a pair of jet engine-like turbines flanking the main abdomen. The ingenious design of the turbines allows them to draw both air and liquids with equal ease, and to reverse direction, if need be, allowing the system to pump in either direction. In standard suction mode, however, the turbines pull down the trunk conduit, and direct any material pulled in down a central channel in the abdomen, to be filtered, trapped, or pushed on through the body of the ‘mount. The system is extremely powerful, able to generate enough force to pull weapons and other gear out of a person’s hands at a distance, pull the clothing off a victim, and then pull them in bodily.
The rear end of the Cyclopede sports a ring of mechanisms and appendages that act as combination web-weaver, baler, and extruder. The Cyclopede incorporates a manufactory system based on the webbing system of the EcoS-K-23 Aracha, sprayers in the tail spitting a quick-setting polymer. Appendages weave and shape the emerging polymer into cargo nets for holding recovered materials, restraint cocoons for holding animals and prisoners, or extruding watertight hose for pumping liquid considerable distances. The Cyclopede produces its own polymer matrix, using modified nanites from its cyber-regeneration system and material feedstock taken in by its ‘true mouth’ in the underside of its head.
Once thought exclusive to the Lost Eclipse Tribe, it is now known to be used by the Wayfinders, Horrorwoods, DarkWaters, and Ghost Riders. As mentioned before, the Cyclopede is primarily used as an industrial unit, assisting in excavation, salvage, and scavenging work. It is also used in firefighting, its suction function reversed to spray water and firefighting chemicals. However, the Cyclopede was first deployed in a combat role by the Nightmares, who discovered the ‘mount’s powerful suction systems could be used quite effectively in urban combat and shipboarding actions to draw out entrenched combatants.
Because of its primarily industrial deployments, the majority of users do not Awaken the Cyclopede’s Artificial Intelligence. The Lost Eclipse and the Wayfinders are the notable exceptions. endowing their Warmounts with psionic sensitivity to help them sniff out hiding fugitives, concealed monsters and buried magic.
Type: EcoS-K-40 Cyclopede
Class: Robotic Warmount
Crew: None; robot intelligence
1 rider/pilot, and room for 1 passenger
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 260
Head 90
Trunk-Tentacle(1) 100
Head Tentacles(8) 15 each
Jet Pumps(2, sides) 45 each
Legs(6) 60 each
Height: 14 ft
Width: 8 ft
Length: 20 ft+15 ft long trunk.
Weight: 2 tons
Cargo: Small space inside/beside the saddle-seat for a few personal possessions and sidearms. A holding bin in the main body can hold up to 500 lbs of gear/salvage.
Physical Strength: Equivalent to Robotic P.S. of 30. The smaller facial tentacles each have a Robotic P.S. of 18.
Powerplant: Nuclear w/ 20 year energy life
Speed: (Running) 50 MPH
(Leaping) 10 ft up/across. Increase to 15 ft up/across with a jet assist.
(Flying) When not providing suction, the suction pump exhausts can also serve in limited fashion as turbofans, providing enough power for brief hovering(up to 100 ft for 1d4x10 seconds) or even limited flight( 80 MPH, maximum altitude of 80 ft, for an hour before needing two hours to cool down).
(Space) Not possible
(Underwater) Limited to ‘swimming’ using the jet-syphon as a water jet at 8 MPH, or running along the bottom at 6 MPH, maximum depth 1,000 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( 30 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 Cyclopedes 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 Analyzer/Sniffer----The Cyclopede’s suction-draw system has a molecular analyzer to constantly sample intake material to look for useful data on trace metals, synthetic materials, and toxins. The system is sensitive enough to allow the Cyclopede to act as a bloodhound, tracking down specific scents(including those of living creatures).
The system can be specifically keyed to alert on explosives, allowing the Cyclopede to cut back its in-draw or even cut it off entirely before the ‘mount accidentally ingests live ordnance. This software patch was added after several would-be captives fed pursuing Cyclopedes live grenades, doing grievous damage to the roboids when the explosives detonated inside the airway. Subsequently, Cyclopedes are now ‘trained’ to be on the alert for this trick, and in at least one case after the upgrade was initiated, the Cyclopede was able to reverse-blow, tossing the live explosives back in the direction of the thrower.
*Trunk Sensor Head---The end of the trunk sports a sensor ring and fringe of tendrils that act as touch-sensors and motion-detectors, roughly equivalent to a cybernetic multimedia Sensor Hand implant, while the optics band carries basic and low-light optics. The trunk head is ideal for rooting round in murky water, dark rooms, and tight spaces for anything hiding within.
*Facial Tentacles---The head sports eight smaller tentacles, four on either side of the trunk, that each have 15 MDC and a Robotic P.S. of 18. They are about six feet long and are typically used for assisting the Cyclopede in feeding itself, but they also be used to probing about like facial whiskers in mud and polluted water, and for prying open doors and containers.
Weapons Systems:
1) Suction Trunk---- The trunk is extremely flexible, and is roughly 2 ft wide(but also has some stretch, so it can accommodate objects as large as 3 ft wide), but can narrow down to as small as 8 inches wide. The suction pumps can move 9,000 gallons of fluid a minute, has a suction lift (the vertical distance above the liquid that the pump can be) of 25 ft, and a discharge head(the vertical distance a column of liquid can be pumped) of 200 ft.
The suction trunk is powerful and large enough to suck in human-sized beings(a very terrifying experience, especially to those who don’t know what’s going on) and either hold them in an abdominal bin or, more likely, spit them out the other end into a net or cocoon spun by the polymer-spinners.
Range: (Melee) Trunk is 15 ft long
(Suction) 30 ft
(Repulsion) 300 ft
Damage:(Melee)Can swat for 1d4 MD
(Suction) Pulls with an arbitrary P.S. of 40. Acts similar to a Wind Burst, only in reverse. Within 30 ft range, characters must make a roll of 18-20 or lose balance and begin being pulled in. Similarly, loose items held in hands will be pulled off and even loose clothing can be sucked off a person.
(Repulsion) Acts similar to a Wind Burst, at ranges of 200 ft or less,
humanoid-sized beings(7 ft or smaller) will have an 88% chance of being knocked over and pushed 1d6x10 ft by the air blast, as well as a 65% chance of being stunned or knocked out.
Creatures and bots weighing over a ton, or standing 8-20 ft, will only have a 40% chance of being knocked over, and only a 15% chance of being stunned.
Creatures and 'bots taller than 21 ft, will be unaffected.
If liquid is being pumped, add +10% to the chance of being knocked over, due to the greater imparted force of the fluid.
If pumping sand or other small debris, the repulsion attack can sandblast for 1d6 SDC to 1 MD depending on the material being thrown.
If pumping water, the trunk can deliver a 3d6x10 HP blast to vampires.
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited
2) (Optional) Modular Weapons(2)---The Cyclopede has provision for torso-mounting two weapons similar to those standard to the Monstrex.
3) Webbing Dispenser----The rear of the Cyclopede has a hay/tree bailer-like ring apparatus with a spray system that sprays a quick-setting megadamage polymer that can form incredibly tough fibers. The fibers can also be spun into cocoon-wrappings, allowing the Cyclopede to construct cargo nets, restraint bags, and water hoses.
The webbing matrix itself is generated by a nanite-impregnated microfac in the war steed’s bulbous abdomen that renders megadamage materials, particularly plastics and composites, into a fine slurry that cures rapidly when sprayed and formed into strands or sheets.
Range: 5 ft
Damage: None. A single 1-inch strand of the synthetic spider-web can hold up to 3 tons and has 1 MDC per 10 ft length; more if braided.
Used to cocoon-spray a target, the cannon can spray up to 50 MDC in one attack, so if the Cyclopede uses all six of its attacks on wrapping a single target, it can create a web shell with 300 MDC, generate a 3,000 ft line in a single melee, or create 200 ft of six-inch hose in one melee.
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Conditionally Unlimited; the Cyclopede’s ready-reserve has 1,000 MDC worth of polymer matrix ready to go, but can generate more through consuming MDC materials(at a ratio of 2 consumed MDC to 1 MDC of produced webbing) that are reprocessed into new webbing compound.
Programming:
The Ecotroz have installed robotic AIs, then infected the matrix with a low-level Ecotroz sentience.
Typically has the following:
Land Navigation 40%(+5% per level of experience for Ecotroz entity)
Prowl 55%(+5% per level of experience for Ecotroz entity)
Climbing 85%
Swimming 60%(+5% per level of experience for Ecotroz entity)
Wilderness Survival 94
Detect Ambush 60%(+5% per level of experience for Ecotroz entity)
Detect Concealment 60 (+5% per level of experience for Ecotroz entity)
Mining and Excavation 70%
Trap/Mine Detection 40%(+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 Cyclopede 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 +1 (+1 from the Ecotroz entity for a total of +2)
Dodge +4
Strike +1 (+2 w/ ranged weaponry)
Parry +6
Disarm +3
Entangle +2
Roll +2
Pull Punch +4
Bite 1d6 MD
Trunk Slap 1d4 MD
Tentacle Punch/Pry 1d4 MD
Body Block/Ram 1d6 MD
Kick 2d4 MD
Note: The Ecotroz intelligence fragment inhabiting the ‘bot gives the Cyclopede an aura and behavior more befitting a sentient being than a robot. The Cyclopede normally has an uncomplaining, docile, phlegmatic attitude likened to that of a camel, and can work long hours doing nothing but chugging away, pumping water(or whatever) while standing in the same place. When urged into combat, they are equally uncomplaining and fearless, methodically going about their work with resolution, if not very much imagination.
Has the following Natural Psionic Abilities(no ISP Cost), all equivalent to 5th level with regards to range and proficiency.
*Presence Sense
*Sixth Sense/Danger Sense
*Sense Magic
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).
Variants:
The main variants of the Cyclopede are those that have been Awakened with an Ecotroz essence-fragment and those that have not.