Paladin Steel Storefront

[taalismn]

Well, I try to make PS infantry arms tough enough to make good blunt instruments in the event you run into one of those annoying 'tech neutralization fields'....

"Hah! Your fancy laser rifle won't work here! This ward has a neutralization field that renders high tech weapons powerless!"
"Good thing I rate high in batting for the Company baseball team....'cause you're going out of the park!"

[taalismn]

Maybe I should just buckle down and make a 96 page book out of this that Palladium can use to get back to where it was.

That's why I hardcopy everything Rifts-related I find on the internet...I've got a gargantuan archive of old stuff and fan netbooks accumulated to the point I'm running out of space...

[taalismn]

Depends how ARCHIE-3 views mutant animals...as inferior to humans, or equally as inferior AS humans...since all will be subject to his (benign, enlightened) rule, or else...

[taalismn]

That's why PS also has stakes in food processing equipment, though we let subcontractors handle the actual food end of things...You ain't going to see 'Paladin Flakes' on the table any time soon, though the bowl and saucer were probably made by one of PS's subsidaries, like 'Everstone' and 'Granite-ware'...

[taalismn]

"Sailor Moon! Believe in yourself and don'HERK!!!"
"I dunno who that jerk was, or what he was thinking, standing up there silhouetting himself...but he splashes pretty..."
"THAT was supposed to be your backup, girl?"
"...uh-huh..."
"I actually feel sorry for you."
"Thanks...though that's kinda funny, coming froma youma.."
"Oh, for Plato's sake! We're NOT YOUMA!!! Is that what this whole dang 'pose, silly speech, and attack' business is about?!"

[taalismn]

"So, son, how are you getting..up...after that...incident...Or do I have have do ask CS Imperial Guard Intel to raid your medical records..?"
"DAD!!!"

[taalismn]

I just like to know who we're marketing to, and how much of a sales staff we should assign to the account...(shrug)

[taalismn]

Actually, I had an incident where a leak developed in the heating pan of the popcorn machine at a movie theater...solid butter-flavored grease turned to very fluid grease...which flowed out onto the floor...
even porous wood got mighty slippery with that treatment...

[taalismn]

Plus more common parts...easier logistics and quicker repairs...

[taalismn]

Another intriguing vehicle, I truly need a collected book of them to keep everything sorted out.

We make lots of little vehicles, and medium vehicles, and big ones, too....So you can match a vehicle to your needs...then customize to suit...

[taalismn]

I wouldn't think the CS encouraging transgenderism.

Karl's just making sure he has grandkids one day...

[taalismn]

Interesting write ups, definitely vehicles worth pondering over. Perhaps combining with the Drom.

Oh yeah...Mothership and kits...Hover Gangs!

[taalismn]

I could almost picture it with a cartoony power armor mascot.

..and the prizes inside specially marked boxes...

[taalismn]

I suppose you should be thankful there are no mutant animal beavers yet.

Actually we do have mutant beavers(intelligent ones at that) as part of the VFS/GNE...They use concrete to build dams...

[taalismn]

All of a sudden I'm getting images of an Altaran and a Shamarran as alternative Sailor Scouts.

Except Rifts doesn't have any small cute, intelligent, animal-like d-bees to pose as advisors..
Okay...maybe we can convince a dragon to 'morph into something small and cute ...that way the effect is so much greater when 'Mister Fuzzy' hulks out...
"HAH! Come any closer and your little dog GETS it!!! Why are you all snickering..."


Actually the VFS/GNE would substitute 'Sailor Scouts' with 'Marine Recon' or 'New Navy SEALs'...and instead of waving a stick and calling out a silly power phrase....

“Oh. let me guess! You’re a NEW Sailor Scout! What are you, Sailor Sun? Sailor Vesta? Sailor Comet? And where’s your fuku, little girl!?”
“Nope, not even close, fat boy...For your information, it’s Marine Corporal Ernestine, you wouldn’t catch me dead in one of those outfits, and this ain’t a henshi stick, it’s a laser designator.”
“What’s that supposed to mea...?”
The Droid Master had just enough time to get irritated at the sudden disappearance of his foe, when the three necronium-tipped ASMs, launched from the repulsor-drive gunship hovering behind Juuban High School, slammed into his chest, blowing him instantly to quantum particles.
As such, he wasn't around to see his remaining minions get sandblasted into elemental grue by the three chain guns that opened up from prepared positions around the schoolyard...those minions that weren't sliced to pieces by laser sniper fire...

[taalismn]

I would tend to think that A.R.C.H.I.E.3 considers everything as inferior to itself.

there are degrees of inferiority....and he regards Hagan as an equal...and apparently has his reasons for not simply killing off the NEMA soldiers in his care...

[taalismn]

Right now what I am writing is only in a copybook. I should transcribe them to electronic format at some point.

Perks of my work...access to a printer...
My own stuff I back up multiple times in several medias(disk, CD-Rom, etc...)

[taalismn]

Jurassic Park comes to Rifts

Rifts comes to Jurassic Park...
"But we have to save the T-Rex! It's only massacred that entire crew and eaten various city folk because it was following its baby! We have to-"
*ZZHAMMM!*
...splash..
"Where I come from, we SHOOT annoyances like that."

[taalismn]

Furry is usually reserved for mammals but if they are a sentient humanoid animal race we would welcome them as brothers by another name. I would put them in the same camp as buggies, insects and arachnids.

Hairy Tarantulas?

[taalismn]

Heh, the Rifts version of wagon trains. Since railroads are practically non-existent now.

Gotta update my maglev railroads...they work by repulsion from a buried underground cable...

[taalismn]

Swiss Army Collar?

Fits Man AND Beast!

[taalismn]

I do hope you leave room on the barrel to add a bayonet.

On my smaller weapons, yes...I didn't mention an underbarrel attachment lug for the Pulverizer because it would be easier to drop the giant shotgun and go hand to hand for a supernaturally strong being, or extend/grab a vibroblade...
Though, of course, one could probably sling a vibroblade, make a ring-socket mount for a big blade, or lash a chainsaw under the pump-action, for kicks...

[NMI]

I am creating this one master post to put all of the Paladin Steel equipment in.

[taalismn]

[NMI]

If you need to post to a specific vehicle listing/post in this thread, then look for the image --> <-- image at the beginning of said post, right click and then select "copy shortcut". That will give you the URL to that specific post.

This merging of all of the threads/vehicles was done as I have received a few complaints about all of the vehicles basically taking up the who front page of the Rifts forum.

My apologies for any inconvenience.

[taalismn]

...sorry about that...

[taalismn]

Paladin Steel Hornet Airborne Combat Drone
(Aka "Boingo", "Mighty Mite", and "Big Buzz")

"I hate the Hornet....faced it for the first and last time when I was with the Ganton Sweepers...we'd raided about four villages and were set to take on a fifth...the one we intended to take as our new 'capital'...and we expected trouble, seeing as the local militia had caught the word the Sweepers were coming, and were going to put up a defense. Just as we'd planned...crush them all in one sweep.
So's we go in fast and low in the Flying Guns we'd kept hidden until then, just to surprise any armor the locals might have...oh, we saw some old tanks early on and smoked them with guns and magic...nifty combo that always catches them by surprise, and we're having a grand old time of it all...
That's when ten of these ugly buzzin' things shoot up out of the woods and get on our tails....Lost two of our birds right quick when they openned up on their first shots...Couldn't believe that there could be so much firepower in such a small thing!
Well, our Psychos and Mages tried to mind control or otherwise fazzle them, but to effect; the things kept coming! We blew two of them out of the sky, and they kepty comin'! Like they wasn't afraid of us at all! Of course, by then, they'd already shot half of us down and were goin' after our ground elements, doin' the same big banger thing to the troops as the airboys.
Mind you, they weren't terribly fast, but fast enough, and by the time we'd figured on outrunning them, they'd gotten all around us. That's when I went down...I wasn't lookin' where I was goin' and ran smack into one of dem's Hornet's sights.
So's now that I've answered youse Eastern boyz' questions on how your toys work out, how about cuttin' me some slack and getting me off hard labor?...It's not like I meant to invade you...."
----Gungrin Ross, ex-Bandit, currently serving time in the Hamil Correctional Facility, Fort Frazier.

The PS-RPV-06 Hornet is Paladin Steel unmanned fighter aircraft design that resembles a half-scale XFY-1 "Pogo" experimental tail-sitting VTOL fighter (tested by the USAF in the 1950s). Paladin Steel developed the aircraft in response to a commission from a Canadian kingdom(now suspected of being the Tundra Rangers).
In gereral layout, the Hornet resembles a fat, stubby dart, with a long protruding propeller spinner with two contra-rotating, three-bladed, props, and four short stubby, triangular wing-fins at the rear of the aircraft. However, the Hornet is instead a semi-autonomous robotic fighter; where a pilot might have sat, there is instead a sensor blister and weapons bay. The Hornet is light enough to be truck- or trailer-transportable, and can be tilted up into takeoff position on its four tail fins/wings within minutes by a trained ground crew. Taking off straight up under the power of its 5,000 HP engine, the Hornet can then level off into horizontal flight, perform its mission, then return to the earth, settling back on to its tail for recovery or re-armament.
The Hornet is tough enough to take, and deal out, considerable punishment, but is also cheap enough to lose. Though slower than many other supersonic-capable aircraft, the Hornet can still take on flying power armors and hovercraft and stand a chance of winning. With all four cannons buzzing on full auto-burst mode, the Hornet can quickly tear a larger, more heavily armored, opponent apart in a matter of minutes.
The Hornet is controlled/piloted by an onboard robotic AI, which can be programmed in advance to carry out specific mission profiles/target specific vehicles/types, or it can be piloted by remote control radio link.

The Hornet is being currently used by Canadian armed forces(the original contractees) and by the Vermont Free State for various mission-profiles, including tactical air defense, air support, recon, and courier duties. It was these examples, being field-tested, that proved incredibly valuable in the aftermath of Mad Sunday in the Vermont Free State, when the original design works were destroyed. The field engineering teams were able use their hardware and blueprints to quickly restore the database on the Hornet. With uncharacteristic speed, Paladin Steel set up production facilities in both the VFS and PSW to begin mass-producing Hornet RPVs for both the domestic market and Black Market, in part to acquire much needed capital for reconstruction in the aftermath of Mad Sunday.
A favorite tactic of special forces teams is to hide their Hornet drones in thick forest or in ruins, waiting for airborne opponents to overfly their position, before zip-launching the drones for a surprise attack or tail-ambush.
The Greater New England Air Defense Militia defense net deploys bunker-sited and mobile truck-deployed Hornets as part of its defense-in-depth against Coalition missiles and aircraft, Splugorth aerial scouts and raiders, and other airborne threats.
Type: PS-RPV-06
Class: Remote Piloted/Semi-Autonomous Airborne Combat Drone
Crew: None, Remote/Robot-Piloted Vehicle
SDC/MDC By Location:
Main Body: 200 MDC
Main Props 60
Wings(4) 40 each
Height:11 ft
Length: 17 ft
Width: 13 ft wingspan
Weight: 8,000 lbs
Powerplant: Liquid Fuel/Electric(200 mile range)
Speed: 620 MPH. Maximum altitude is 15,000 ft
Black Market Cost: 1 million credits for a fully-equipped Hornet
Sensors:
Radio/Video Telemetry: 300 mile range
IR/UV Optics---2000 ft
Thermographic Imager----3000 ft
Telescopic Optics----6000 ft
Laser targeting(+1 to strike w/ ranged weaponry)
Passive Radar Detector
Radar----50 mile range
Motion Detector and Collision Warning Detector(especially important when landing)----- 100 ft range
Parachute Recovery System---If so desired, the Hornet can be recovered by a deployable parafoil parachute that allows the drone to drop to a ‘soft’ landing, in event of damage or total fuel expediture.
Combat:
Bonuses: 5 attacks per melee, +1 initiative, +4 dodge, +2 to strike
When being remotely piloted, use the pilot’s piloting bonuses, +1 to strike and +2 to dodge.

Weapons Systems:
1)Light Rail Guns(4)(Canadian Model)
Range:4,000 ft
Damage:1d6 MD single rd, 7d6 MD per 30 shot burst
All four cannons salvoing on one target(counts as one attack) do 5d4x10 MD!
Rate of Fire:Five times per melee
Payload:3000 rds per cannon(12,000 rds total) That's 100 bursts per gun!

OR.....
20 mm Light Autocannon(Paladin Steel Model)--The PS/VFS model mounts four rapid-fire 20mm autocannons
Range:(20mm)3000 ft (1500 ft for wood rounds)
Damage:(20mm) 1d4 MD per shell
4d6 MD per 5 rd burst
1d4x10+4 MD per 10 rd burst
Airburst does 1d4 MD to 2 ft blast radius(single shot)
All four cannons salvoing on one target(counts as one attack) do 4d4x10+16 MD!
(20mm PSX) 4d4 MD single rd
1d6x10 MD per 5 rd burst
2d6x10 MD per 10 rd burst
Airburst does 4d4 MD to 2 ft blast radius
All four cannons salvoing on one target(counts as one attack) do 8d6x10 MD!(ARGH!!!)

(Wood Rounds) 6d6 SDC per round (1D6x10 HP to vampires)
2d4x10 SDC per 5 rd burst(2d4x10 HP to vampires)
1d4x10+4 MD per 10 rd burst(3D6x10 HP to vampires)
Airbursts are not possible with wooden rounds
Rate of Fire: 5 times per melee
Payload: 400 rds per cannon(that's 40 bursts),

Cost: A box of 100 20 mm 'smart' rds costs 800 credits
A box of 100 20 mm 'smart' PSX rds costs 3000 credits


2)Missile Bay---The center of the Hornet sports a large missile bay .
Range:Varies By Missile Type
Damage: Varies By Missile Type
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1,2,4,6, or 12
Payload:24(48 if the guns are removed) mini-missiles, OR 12 short range missiles, OR 4 medium range missiles.
Later models would also have the capability of carrying and firing up to 18 Paladin Steel-made ‘Black Talon’ smart L-SSMs or 4 ‘SkyFlash’ MRMs.

Options:
*Self-Destruct Charge---This turns the drone into a flying aerial bomb for kamikaze ground attack or last ditch defenses against massive swarms of airborne opponents(like Xiticix)
Damage: 2d6x10 to an 80 ft blast radius
Cost: 200,000 credits

*Wingtip Hardpoints(2-4)---2 or 4 hardpoints can be mounted on the ends of the stub wings for mounting small avionics/ordnance packages(nothing too heavy, since additional weight and hardware tends to foul the aerodynamics. Indeed, until the pods are jettisoned, they impose a -1 to Dodge with the aircraft.
Each Hardpoint can carry ONE of the following:
a) Mini-Missile Pod---6 mini-missiles
b) Flare/Chaff Launcher---- Triax-Style chaff-launchers, 2 in the main body on the tail
Range: Close Defense
Damage: None; similar to Triax-style chaff
01-50 Enemy Missile or volley detonates in chaff and threat is nuetralized
51-75 Missile/Volley diverts and may pursue/lock on to other targets
76-00 No Effect! Missile(s) still on target!
Will aslo temporarily blind and impede flying monsters who fly into it.
Reduce APMs/combat bonuses/ speed by half for 1d4 melees
Payload: 6 flares/chaff bundles per pod
Cost: 40,000 credits per pair of hardpoints

*(TW) Spinning Blades----A modified application of the Spinning Blades spell, this system converts conventional propellor blades into powerful melee weapons.....When activated, a series of mystical blades(typically3- 12) appear in a floating circle ahead and slightly wider than the arc of the converted propellor. These blades then spin like a demonic buzzsaw, protecting the engine and shredding anything that gets in front of them(acting as a limited protective mechanism). A favorite with daredevil pilots who like getting up close and personal with enemy aircraft, or who like flying through swarms of monsters like Gargoyles, Xiticix, and Winged Black Men, shredding them as they fly past.
The Hornet, being an unmanned drone, lacks an onboard pilot to pump PPE into the system and keep it going, so PS has developed a special PPE battery with about 80 PPE...enough to keep the system running for 10 minutes once activated...usually just before the fighter lifts off, but PS mages are also working on a remote control system using the spell Magic Pigeon to remotely activate TW systems on RPVs).
Range: Melee(typically 3-4 ft ahead of the props, and up to half the prop radius out (about 15 ft diameter)
Damage: Does 2d6 MD per blade (so basic three-blade set does 6d6 MDC on a strike,and all six do 1d6x10+10 MD)
Duration: 10 melee rounds( 2.5 minutes per activation)
Bonus: Also has a +6 to parry rail gun rounds, autocannon shells, and other projectiles aimed at the propellers
PPE Activation Cost: 20 PPE per activation
Cost: 190,000 credits

[taalismn]

Paladin Steel Sea Construction Division---(aka ‘SeaCon, ‘SeeBee’)

”When you need to get to the bottom of things”

“Where do You Want It?”

“Above ground, underground, outer space, inner space, other space.....If you need it there, we’ll build it!”

---Semi-Official SeeBee slogans

“Time to get down and get wet!”
---Less formal SeeBee slogan

Attached to PS’s Marine Engineering Division, Sea Construction Division, or ‘SeaCon’ for short, fills much the same role as Contract Engineering, only it specializes in underwater/freefloating structures. While Marine Engineering oversees the development and production of marine systems, including ships, submarines, materials, and technologies, and Contract Engineering implements the construction of harbor channels, piers, bridges, and shore fortifications, SeaCon undertakes the incredibly hazardous task of diving into the ocean depths to build structures that can survive both the elements and the largely unknown terrors of the depths. Much of this work is for Paladin Steel’s own marine projects, including undersea mining and defense work, but an increasing amount of work is coming from other kingdoms bordering the ocean, as well as many marine d-bees and aliens who want to protect and benefit their own small enclaves, and are willing to go to outsiders for help.
Taken in total, this work has opened up incredible new vistas for the nations of Rifts Earth. For a fee, SeaCon will develop, help design, produce, and deploy underwater structures, from prefab components, of built custom to order. SeaCon has become involved in a wide variety of different jobs; from establishing magnesium nodule scrapper-runs and methane hydrate mines to constructing giant undersea fortifications and colonies. It has also opened up a new branch of employment for which Paladin Steel and Paladin Steel West desperately seeking new employees....the new SeeBee Corps needs talented and experienced new workers, but they’re perfectly willing to train anyone who’s interested in taking the plunge into underwater engineering.
SeaCon’s biggest facility is located in New Seattle, as part of Paladin Steel West and the Pacific Initiative, but the division headquarters is located in the east as part of the main Paladin Steel complex outside Burlington, Vermont Free State, with large facilities in New Bath, New Boston, New Bourne, and Myddleton in the Greater New England state-territories.

Products
Besides doing the work of construction, SeaCon also distributes equipment and materials specifically designed for underwater living and work. Special underwater-curing and -setting adhesives, cements, concrete, and gel polymers, oxygen-permeable membrane walls, desalination gear, oxygen generators, underwater electrical turbines, polarized forcefield-augmented pressure structures, and more, can all be bought through SeaCon.



*Surface Platforms----MMSP(Multipurpose Marine Surface Platform)

“Why go to all the trouble of negotiating or fighting to take over some island for its location, when we can just build our own to order? Between the MMSPs and the DSDs, we have everything we need to create a floating countryside to spec!”
----Sea Master Gavin Flogg, Paladin Steel Naval Engineering

“Oh sure, those offshore platforms Paladon Steel sells are sure convenient----if you work for their companies...if you’re a scupper-worker working for one of the smaller kingdoms with a budget to stay under, it can really suck...Those big float-and-sink platforms got ballast tanks and bilges bigger than a lot of submarines and tankers...lot of dead open space that looks real attractive to a whole slew of nasty critters who like lairing up...The intake filters really aren’t designed to keep a determined monster out, and most outside buyers don’t spring for the internal security sensors that tell them if they got a squatter come aboard....I hear SeaCon uses remotes and drones to clean out their tanks....most of the firms I know on the outside don’t bother...so when it comes time to flush the bilges or clean out the ballast vents, some schmuck gets to suit up and go under with a crowbar and a scrubbrush.....And it’s dark and close in those tank spaces, with only the lights the divers brought in to light the place up...Between all the shifting shadows, transmitted metal groans, and the noise of your own respirator, it’s easy to imagine all sorts of nastiness sharing the place with you...and most everybody I’ve worked for doesn’t allow the divers to carry any fiirepower that might accidently hole their sea platform and sink it permanently...Even if there isn’t anything else, a guy can get so jittery, he can screw up so bad and kill himself, without telling anyone what he did...makes it real good for the ones they gotta send in after them...
So, sure, buying a floating dock may be a real bargain, but I personally can’t stand ‘em unless I’m the one sitting up on the open deck giving the orders where I can see any trouble coming....”
-----Kevin Caltroum, freelance maritime worker, Baymont, Old California.

Paladin Steel Naval Engineering and SeaCon manufacture a variety of floating platforms that can be used as tethered coastal rigs, or as freefloating platforms. These platforms are based on information recovered about the pre-Rifts United States Navy’s JMOB(Joint Mobile Offshore Base) platforms, which would later become the basis of Tritonia’s float modules. With some refinement and materials substitution, the standard JMOB has been reborn as PS’s MMSP(Multipurpose Marine Surface Platform).
The standard MMSP is a flat-topped stilted platform like a widened stretch of overpass, and looks much like an aircraft carrier. Submersible pontoons carry the upper decks atop a series of support columns; the pontoons can be pumped in either direction to raise the platform further above the water, or closer to its surface. The platform itself has a flat top covered by a combination of kevlar fabric and megadamage concrete, and has a flat top, usable as an aircraft platform(or as level space for conventional building structures). Underneath the ‘roof’, multiple decks can be added; the standard MMSP has two regular(10-ft clearance) decks for personnel, and two (40-ft) cargo/hangar decks, though modular deck construction can change this arrangement, or add more decks, simply by floating the new decks underneath, hoisting them up, and bolting them into position. Loading platforms and elevator decks can be added to the sides, allowing the MMSP to service ships tied up alongside it, deploy smaller craft to the upper deck, flight decks, or the waters underneath. Multiple MMSP segments can be linked together to form massive floating fortresses or logistical platforms, the jointed connectors allowing transit between the linked platforms even in rough seas.
PS also sells a similar circular elevated platform(about 600 ft across) that can be similarly floated or sunk in position, and can be interlocked to other platforms, for about the same price. However, this has proven less popular with those intending to build larger scale ‘artificial islands’.
PS has already anchored or sunk in place over a dozen of these platforms around the mouths of Boston Harbor, New Bath, and the waters of Cape Cod to set up ‘sea forts’ similar to the English Channel and Thames Estuary Maunsell AAA rigs that defended England during WWII. These defense platforms serve as early warning posts, life stations, navigational aides, and base facilities for networks of hydrophones, underwater drones, and airborne recon UAVs.
Size: 1,000 ft long, 500 ft wide, and 200 ft tall(typically sits 120 ft above the water)
Weight: 8,000 tons (base weight)
MDC by Location
Upper Deck 3,500
Support Legs(8) 500 each
Pontoon Sections*(16) 250 each
*The platform can remain afloat with as few as 7 sections intact, but will begin listing severely. If ALL pontoon sections are holed/destroyed, the upper deck has come crashing into the water...still afloat, but foundering and unstable...little more than a badly damaged raft, and likely togo to the bottom without drastic action.
Speed: An integral hydrojet system (liquid fueled. electric, or nuclear) can be used to maneuver the platform segment at up to 12 MPH
Weapons Systems: None standard....but you have plenty of space, so feel free to pile on the goodies.
Cost: 28 million credits per platform segment; power systems, internal fittings, weapons systems, and everything else cost extra

[b]Hex-Pad 2 MMSP Unit[/b]
PS also sells a smaller hexagonal-sized platform for people looking to start small and grow large. The Hex-Pad 2 bears a remarkable resemblance to the floating modules used by Tritonia(PS doesn’t deny being influenced by Tritonian aquatecture), leading some to believe that PS(especially Paladin Steel West) is planning on making a bid to be Tritonia’s second-source contractor for new components. Smaller and lighter, as well as less well armored, than the massive MMSP-1 platforms, the Hex-Pad 2 is also considerably cheaper, and thus can be bought in bulk.
Size: 328 ft wide
Weight: 1,500 tons
Weight Capacity: 360,000 tons
MDC:
Main Body 2,000
Cost: 10 million credits


UUMCS(Universal Underwater Modular Construction System) Components
The following are just a few of the pre-fab modular components that can be purchased and added to MMSPs and DSDs, allowing buyers to customize and interlink their platforms and underwater habitats.

*Tube Connector---Reinforced tubular transit tunnel for connecting widely-spaced modules.
MDC: Typically has 100-150 MDC per 25 ft segment/length
Cost: 60,000 credits per 25 ft long segment/length(8 ft in diameter)
Additional MDC can be added at 18,000 credits per 10 MDC

*Universal Personnel Airlock---A short length of reinforced cylinder, outfitted with water and air pumps. The UPA is roughly 10 ft long and 8 ft in diameter, and can hold 1-8 human-sized beings at the same time. Can be either externally or internally installed in a structure. Typically has 100-150 MDC.
Cost: 80,000 credits

*Small Vehicle Airlock---A larger version of the above, just large enough to hold a small mini-sub or several underwater scooters. Typically has 150-200 MDC.
Cost: 200,000 credits

*Universal Docking Collar---A pneumatic sealing collar that forms an airtight seal on most vessel hulls, allowing for safe personal transit from the vessel to a habitat(or vice versa). Compatible with all PS and 5ST-built underwater vehicles, but only about 70% of Black Market models. To remedy this, a Pandora-designed UDC with a electromagnetic MagGrip seal is also available at extra cost.
Cost: 40,000 credits for standard airlocks, plus an additional 50,000 credits for MagGrip action.

Extra Armor can be added to airlocks at a cost of 10 MDC per 15,000 credits, up to 200% of base MDC.

*Paladin Steel ‘StasRac’ Magfield Pressure Resistance Generators

“When we put a ‘screen door’ on a submarine at Paladin Steel, we really mean a FORCE screen door!”

StasRacs are an adaptation of alien electromagnetic forcefield technology acquired and adapted by Paladin Steel, that has been designed to augment pressure-resistant structures by shoring them up and bleeding off pressure stress. With StasRac augmentation, underwater structures and vessel hulls can increase their maximum deep dive capability up to 50%(so a submarine previously rated for 5,000 ft depth, can now dive to 7,500 ft!).
Another bonus is that when hit with physical attacks like punches, tentacle crushes, harpoons, and even pressure waves from nearby explosions, the field subtracts 1d6 MD(2d4 MD for ships larger than 100 ft long, and 3d6 MD for 250+ foot craft, on account of the larger virtual ‘surface area’ to radiate the energy) from each strike as its physical force is bled off (energy weapons and magic attacks are UNaffected).
When in operation, StasRacs give off a slight glow(actually pressure stress energy being bled off as electrical current and light energy), and when suddenly changing depth/pressure(as with a rapid ascent or teleport to the surface) they release their pent-up energy in a massive static electrical shock(does 2d4 MD to anything touching the field at the time) that can be quite startling, especially in dark conditions where the resulting flash can stun observers or blow a stealth approach. Deploying a long(at least 50 ft) ‘grounding’ cable and radiator vane(somewhat like a radar target on a bouy) to direct the bleed-off a safe distance away from the craft is advised if the crew doesn’t wish to damage anything their craft is carrying while doing a rapid ascent/shock release.
The StasRacs have some problems(as anyone who has tried to fit underwater equipment with forcefields has learned), however. One is that they require constant power current to keep up their protection(it is best to have a secondary power source to directly power the StasRac generators). Second, they produce a noticeable electromagnetic field that can be picked up easily by MAD gear(typically HALF again to TWICE the regular detection range), and by many undersea predators(most notably sharks) that use natural EM sensors to detect and track potential prey. Meanwhile, sonar effectiveness is reduced by as much as 50% with regard to range, while the StasRac is active, and radio communications may experience static creeping into transmission and reception.
StasRacs also work only on structures that are (relatively) rounded and streamlined, with few appendages and extensions that would break the field and /or increase its surface area, making pressure reinforcement that much more difficult.
They are also fairly expensive, but for the added reinforcement, many seafarers are willing to spend the extra credits.
Size: Rarely larger than 10-15 cubic feet( minimum of 6 cubic feet), and adding 300-600 lbs of weight
Cost: 200,000 credits per 100 cubic feet of structure to be protected.

DSD(Deep Sea Dome) Series

“Easy to install, easy to attach, and you can expand the set as you need to....camouflage ‘em or light ‘em up, and you’re in business!”

One of SeaCon’s most popular products is the DSD series of prefabricated modular underwater structures. These structures are typically dome or spheroid-shaped for maximum pressure resistance, and are constructed of corrosion-proof reinforced polyglass and ceramic composites. They are modular, so they can be outfitted for different purposes, and multiple DSDs can be linked together to form larger aggregate structures. Individual DSDs can be outfitted as underwater habitats, observation posts, equipment sheds, and even bunkers for remote activated weapons like torpedoes and sonic cannon. DSDs can be outfitted as bottom installations or freefloating units. Many users frequently use the larger domes as sub garages, setting the domes on tall pylons while leaving the bottoms of the domes open to the water(as ‘moonpool’-style airlocks).
Note1: Unless otherwise noted, ALL DSDs have been pressure-certified for depths up to 1.2 miles.
Note2: For DOUBLE the cost, many of the half-domes described below can be bought as fully fused spheres with double the capacity/internal space, armor, and greater pressure resistance(+30% over regular stress limits).
Note 3: For 50% extra of cost, the DSDs can be made of clear pre-stressed Transteel TitanoCrystal material.

DSD-A---The smallest DSD, a small dome or sphere just large enough to hold 1-2 people, or a wellhead/piping connection.
Size: 6 ft in diameter*
MDC: 45
Cost: 30,000 credits
*Historical Note: The original pre-Rifts BeeBee and Barton 2-man bathysphere was only 4 ft in diameter and had an eight-hour air supply!

DSD-B---Next largest DSD, and commonly used for storage and sensor mounts
Size: 12 ft in diameter
MDC: 80
Cost: 50,000 credits

DSD-C----Next largest, and affording a bit more elbow room
Size: 20 ft in diameter
MDC: 150
Cost: 200,000 credits

DSD-D---One of the most popular DSDs, just large enough for 5-8 people to comfortably inhabit.
Size: 30 ft in diameter
MDC: 250
Cost: 400,000 credits

DSD-E---A favorite for small underwater outposts and colonies
Size: 60 ft in diameter
MDC: 600
Cost: 900,000 credits

DSD-F----Typically used to house entire outposts or underwater industrial platforms
Size: 100 ft in diameter
MDC: 1,500
Cost: 7 million credits

DSD-G---The largest single-piece prefab undersea mass-production DSD dome to date; a massive construction of reinforced polyglass large enough to cover a small colony in one building
Size: 100 ft tall, 200 ft wide at base
MDC: 3,000
Cost: 30 million credits

Extra Armor can be added to DSDs at a cost of 10 MDC per 20,000 credits, up to 200% of base MDC.


Underwater Systems
The following documents some common design features and aspects of underwater structures:

Structure/Facility Types:
*Freefloating---Whether on the surface or buoyed to float beneath the waves, these structures have the advantage of not being bound to anything, and being able to go wherever the sea and wind carry them. Some have ballast tanks, allowing them to select the depth at which they float. In pre-Rifts times, this made them ideal for long term observations of ocean environments(since they didn’t disturb the surroundings with engine noise or propulsion byproducts), or long-duration vacation accommodations. On the minus side, they are wholly at the mercy of the elements, have no fixed location, and tend to be rather difficult to re-supply, if they get far from their builders’ shoreside base of operations. Most such structures have anchors to set down in locations they like for awhile, have small maneuvering thrusters, or have one or two large tugboat vessels on hand to tow them out of trouble. Tritonia is a classic case of a Freefloating Structure.

*Tethered---Same as above’ floating structures, but these structures are more or less permanently tethered, and relying on their free movement to preserve them from waves and currents. However, unless they have some sort of propulsion or station-keeping system, if their anchor tether is damaged or severed, they are at the mercy of the elements. Also, under certain circumstances, their tethers may also be a danger, holding them in place or dragging them under.

*Bottom Anchored---The complex or habitat sits on the bottom, fixed in place by their own weight or by anchor rods. This is common for undersea drilling rigs, some of which have emergency ballast systems that allow them to cut loose and float to other locations. Bottom Anchored structures have the advantage of fixed locations, but depending on their design, they are still susceptible to enemies and elements moving around and under them.

*Underground---The complex is actually built into the sea bottom or the side of a sea-mount or shelf. These complexes are extremely expensive and difficult to build, but they enjoy the protection of the surrounding rock and/or the camouflage afforded by the underwater terrain.

Oxygen Systems---- (Hey, because you gotta breath, right, buddy?)
*Tanked Air----All underwater structures designed for air-breathers will have some sort of tanked air/oxygen/breathing gas reserve, and a backup air filtration system designed to scrub carbon dioxide and other waste gases out of the supply, and extend it. In structures wholly dependent on tanked air supplies, re-supply and proper maintenance of the filtration systems are constant concerns. Some habitats may try to get around this by sending snorkels to the surface to pump down fresh air from time to time, but this isn’t always practical in hostile waters, or for habitats at great depths.

*Electrolytic Oxygen Generator---Most high-tech ‘everlast’ systems are reliant on a sort of high-tech ‘furnace’ that uses electrical energy to crack sea water for hydrogen and oxygen. This has the advantage of producing both oxygen for breathing, and hydrogen for energy, but requires a reliable source of energy to produce the large amounts of power needed. Another advantage is that since oxygen is already a part of the H2O molecule, the system isn’t dependent on variables of dissolved oxygen...as long as there’s power, the hardware can separate the gases. Just make sure one has enough inert and supplementary gases to ‘cut’ the pure oxygen and make it breathable.
PS sells Electrolytic Oxygen Generators(power source not included) for 5,000 credits per man-capacity(ability to produce enough breathable oxygen to keep one average-sized humanoid alive). A standard E-clip can keep a one-man unit going for 2 hours.

*Gill Systems---This uses special gas-permeable materials and circulating fluids in imitation of biological gills to filter available dissolved oxygen out of the water. The external mechanism usually takes the form of large sheaves or walls of thick ‘film’ or ‘fabric’ sandwich with innumerable capillaries of circulating fluid inside, picking up oxygen as water passes over the large surfaces. Gill Systems are very high-end technology, but have the advantages of being low energy, very quiet, environmentally safe, and low cost in the long run. On the minus side, they are high start-up cost, require large surface areas for large crews, are susceptible to pollutants that may damage or clog the gills(Kittani Gill-Kill submarine munitions are particularly useful against them) , and are reliant on there being large amounts of dissolved oxygen in the water; not always present at great depths.
PS produces its own Gill Systems with an efficiency rate of 1 man-capacity per 10 square yards of surface area(can draw/filter enough oxygen under normal conditions to keep
one average-sized humanoid alive under normal levels of physical activity, through a gill with 10 square yards of surface area) for 9,000 credits per man-capacity. However, one should buy more footage units than the minimum necessary to compensate for increased physical activity, surplus atmosphere, and low oxygen ratio in the water(at extreme depths, ocean water has very low levels of recoverable dissolved oxygen, as opposed to surface layers).


Airlocks:
*Airlock---The traditional double- or triple-doored lock system for letting divers in and out of a habitat. Airlocks have the advantage that they are easily armored, can serve as decompression chambers in a pinch, access can be controlled, and they can be used to facilitate movement to and from a low-pressure environment to a high-pressure one. On the minus side, airlocks tend to be heavy, slow, extremely complex to maintain and keep out pressure, pump out water, and maintain structural integrity. Airlocks large enough to hold submarines tend to be exceptionally expensive, owing to their size, and the amount of air and water they must move.

*’Moon Pool’---A ‘Moon Pool’ is simply a large opening in the bottom of a habitat that relies on the pressure of the air trapped in the habitat to keep water out. Moon pools are popular because they can be made quite large(large enough for large groups of divers and submarines), and they are easy to use. On the minus side, many moon pool designs lack any sort of closure mechanism, allowing enemies easy access to the inside of the habitat. At great depths, they also require that the habitat be highly pressurized so that the habitat air pressure keeps the ocean from flooding inside. Also, to take advantage of the moon pool design, the habitat must either be anchored above the bottom or have a tunnel leading up into it from below.

Fun Notes:
*Magic Teleportation---Be careful when using magic gateways or magical teleportation spells when traveling to or from underwater locations, especially if there’s a large pressure differential. Going into a high-pressure environment without pre-breathing can result in headaches, dizziness, and embarrassing fainting spells. Going instantly from a high pressure to a low pressure situation can prove fatal, due to the bends, or even explosive decompression.
Most supernatural beings with deep water abilities will NOT be affected by this, however, owing to their supernatural constitutions(and possible use of magic to instantly stabilize their physiologies), though air- and water-breathers will likely feel some discomfort from being translated from a high pressure environment to a low-pressure one. GMs may want to give these beings a 1d4-1d6 melee/minute period of disorientation/stun while their bodies re-adjust(which is better than what unprotected ‘normal’ beings will be experiencing)...

[taalismn]

Only sorry people had to complain...wasn't my intention...

Replaced the first SeaCon post with different material....
Doing some more unearthing, revamping, and in some cases total rewriting(due to missing or corrupted files) of stuff I've already alluded to...

[taalismn]

Paladin Steel Drone Aircraft Programmes
Dewspite its earlier anti-robot stance(owing to its bad experiences with the Mechanoids...an event which, ironically, gave it an early leg up on its competitors in the realm of high tech weaponry), PS’s place as major arms supplier and backbone of the Vermont Free State, beseiged by enemies on practically all sides, has led to s reversal of that short-sighted reluctance, and the company now thouroughly embraces remote and semi-autonomous weapons systems. This includes everything from ground drone robots, Transformable Frames, robo-tanks, Lamprey torpedoes, to Firebird fighters and Shrike space probes. Such weapons allow for ‘force multiplier’ attacks, allowing the VFS military to field many more combat effective units than it has actual warm bodies in its ranks, by launching and directing squadrons and squads of robot weapons systems. Even remote piloted systems, though susceptible in some cases, to jamming, allow pilots to stay far behind defensive lines while directing their charhes, sharply reducing pilot fatigue and loss rates. If and when their robot remote is destroyed in teh course of a mission, the pilot can simply switch to afresh machine and complete the mission, or switch to a new mission.
In the field, PS and VFS units will operate from converted cargo vehicles(often lofting the robots with a gas catapult) and attendant command APCs, laying low and remaining camouflaged, using scrambled communications or line of sight communications lasers(often relayed via other aerial platforms and semi-satellites hovering just beneath the Interface). Often, to disguise the location of the command/control bunker and piloting center, teh transmission tower will be connected to the control center by a cable or fiber optic link, allowing a safe stand-off distance of anyway from a few hundred feet to several miles. This is particularly true of the defense grid of the VFS, where the ‘civilized’ countryside is strung with buried fiber optic cabling for both civilian and military communications.....pilots can take control of weapons platforms on the other side of the state, with negligible time lag, using the com grid to communicate with distant militaryb transmitters...otr taking over cellular towers to continue transmitting!
In the event communications are lost, most PS drone systems have a ‘semi-autonomous ‘ robotic A.I. to direct them....These are fairly simple systems, incapable of higher abstract thought, but capable of performing basic combat, search-and-destroy, and return operations.
Above all, PS drones are mostly designed to be reliable, inexpensive, and ultimately expendable..better that a hundred drones fall in combat than a life be needlessly thrown away. With the threat of attack from Atlantis, Free Quebec, the Coalition, and who knows what else, mounting every day, the small VFS and GNE figure that drone systems are another useful way of multiplying their kill-ratio of enemy troops and equipment beyond what its small military could otherwise rack up on its own. Drone systems are thus of increasing importnace to the GNE armed services and national security.

What follows are a few of the more common drone aircraft systems in operation with the VFS and GNE(many more are in development---to be documented at a later date)

Paladin Steel PSQF-2 ‘FireBird’ Drone Fighter
“Sir, we got inbounds from Pennslyvania airspace, heading north, northeast at Mach 2.”
“Looks like a Coalition probe towards Quebec or maybe Burlington...too early to tell...what have we got in the area?”
“Two GyreFalcon squardons at Lovettville. “
“Hmmm, they’re no good against supersonics....any top-class units available?”
“The Eighty-first and their Crusaders, but they’re too far back to make intercept before the bogies make fall over GNE territory.”
“Ring up Briar Patch One and Briar Patch Five, they’re right in the path of the inbounds... Key six FireBirds to launch, three from each base...Vector three birds to deal with ithe inbounds, hold the rest in reserve... Then get me the Eighty-first and the Seventh, and tell them we might have some company coming their way.”
“Briar Patches confirm they have six birds ready to go on your command.”
“Pop them up when the targets get within one sixty klicks of them...no point in letting the boggies know they’re being watched just yet, and if they attack our birds on a sudden approach, we’ll get a good idea what their intentions are and what they’re packing...and tell the Briars to be ready to move after launch....small chance they might guess where the birds are coming from, but not from mobile platforms!”

“Damn things are almost as bad as Xiticix...they come swarming up out of nowhere, harass you all the way, and because the pilots are sitting safe miles away, they can put the damn things through maneuvars that would kill a pilot, and then they kamikaze on you if there’s nothing left for them to shoot with...all that liquid fuel they have makes them go up like a torch, that will incinerate you even worse then if you got slugged with a cold-fusion bottle....even if it don’t penetrate the armor, it can cook you nicely before the insulation and cooling systems in your bird can compensate. Lost one wingmate thanks to that...ramming attack hardly scratched him, but his electronics overheated and he ended up burying himslef in the side of a mountain in Virginia....wonder if they ever got his body out...”
---Anonymous Coalition Pilot

This aircraft was PS’s second attempt (after the Hornet RPV with the Canadians) at designing a high-performance, unmannned, semi-autonomous air combat vehicle that could be deployed in sufficient numbers to alleviate the problems the small Vermont Free State Air Force had dealing with all the possible fronts that the numerically superior Coalition Air Force could attack them from, as well as other airborne enemies. The thought was that drone aircraft could be sent to patrol far from the recognized GNE borders, and provide early warning, or else could be ‘popped up’ from mobile launch platforms(similar to tactics developed by Free Canada with the Hornet RPV) and wear down any incoming enemy force while manned units could scramble from bases in the GNE.
The PSQF-2 was modeleld after the pre-Rifts Ryan Aeronautical Model 147 E-G ‘ Q-2C Firebee’ target drone(which was also used as a recon vehicle during the Vietnam War). The Paladin Steel version is slightly smaller, however, and is constructed of lighter composite megadamage materials. The standard engine is a liquid-fuelled turbofan engine with better fuel efficiency and range than the original’s. Modular nose sections allow for a variety of different sensor and internal armament packages to be fitted, while twin underwing hardpoints allow for a diverse array of additional sensor pods, ordnance, or range-extendinfg droptanks to be carried.
While the reliance on a liquid fueled engine may strike some as wasteful, given the difficulty of obtaining aviation-grade petroleum- or alcohol-based fuel stocks, it is much less expensive than a micro-fusion powerplant, allowing for a more readily mass-producable machine, that commanders could also afford to lose.
The PSQF-2 can take off from a conventional airstrip, be launched from under a larger ‘mothership’(typically a modified PS-C130-II Hercules II, which can carry two under its wings), or ‘hotshotted’ with a JATO bottle off a truck carrier. Recovery is even simpler...the drone returns to a ‘safe zone’ ,cuts its engines, and deploys a parachute for a soft landing, or airborne ‘snag’ recovery. The craft can then be picked up, repaired, refurbished, and refuelled for redeployment.
The Vermont Free State and Greater New England have deployed hundreds of active PSQF-2s on its borders and as point defense around its communities, while other units are deployed as part of long range recon groups. A number of the GNE’s Navy vessels also deploy the drones as part of their air defense and decoy complements.
Type:PSQF-2
Class:Semi-Autonomous Unmanned Fighter Vehicle
Date of Introduction: 103 PA
Crew: None, robot drone
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 150
Wings(2) 30 each
Tail 30
Height: 7 ft
Width: 21 ft
Length: 15 ft
Weight: 2 tons
Cargo: Internal pallet space and two hardpoints.
Powerplant: Liquid-Fuelled TurboFan or Nuclear w/ 5 year energy life
Speed: 600 MPH, can briefly ‘sprint’ at Mach 1.1 for five minutes at a stretch
Cruising altitude of 55,000 ft, but can get up to 72,000 ft.
1,500 mile range
Cost: A liquid-fuelled FireBird costs 700,000 credits, nuclear-powered model costs 1.2 million credits
Combat programming and modification costs another 1 million credits
Systems of Note:
Radar----80 mile range
Basic Robot Optics
Radar Detector/EM Warning Sensor
Inertial Guidance
Long Range Radio/Video Transmission---500 miles
*Optional Autonomous Control or Remote Piloting
*Parachute Recovery System
*Modular Recon Sensor Pallet---Standard Recon mission loadout consists of a Hycon II high-res digital imaging system able to wide-angle and record an image swath 22 miles wide by 800 miles long, with 1 ft image resolution, thermo-imaging and infra-red, low-lite enhance, and EM-band surveillance/recording.

Weapons Systems:
1)(Optional) Nose-mounted Weaponry---The PSQF-2 Drone can carry a set of internal weaponry in place of the Recon Sensor Pallet
a) Twin Light Rail Guns---Copies of the Coalition’s own C-200 ‘Dead Man’ rail gun.
Range: 4,000 ft
Damage: 1d4 MD single rd, 4d6 MD per 20 rd burst(8d6 MD for both guns firing in a dual burst---counts as one attack)
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload:400 rd drum(20 bursts) per gun

b) Twin Light Lasers---4,000 ft, 3d6 MD single shot, 6d6 MD for both cannon firing simultaneously(counts as ONE attack), 200 shot battery

c)Twin Light Ion Cannon----2,600 ft, 6d6 MD per single blast, 1d6x10 for both cannon firing at once(takes 1 attack), 200 shot battery

d) Light Autocannon----ONE centerline autocannon can be carried. This is the 20mm ‘Taskin’ Infantry Cannon firing twenty-millimeter proximity-fuzed ‘smart’ munition.
Range: 3,000 ft
Damage: 4d4 MD single rd, 1d6x10 MD per 5 shot burst, 2d6x10 MD per 10 rd burst
Fragmentation burst does 4d4 MD to 5 ft blast radius.
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: 100 rds

e) ECM Module---electronic jamming system that 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)
f) Jammer-----A mini-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.

2. (Optional)Hardpoints(2)---The PSQF-2 has two underwing hardpoints(one under each wing) that can be used to carry additional sensors, weaponry, or cargo pods.
Each Hardpoint can carry ONE of the following:
a)Cargo Pod----Can hold up to 500 lbs
b) Sensor Pod---Can be fitted to accomodate up to three different sensor systems, but most sensor paods will have a wide angle still or digital camera, IR/Thermograph optics, and a laser rangefinder. Other sensor types include Kirillian aura-imagers, radiation detectors, magnetometers, EM detectors, and other specialized sensor types.
c) Flare/Chaff Launcher---
Range: Close Defense
Damage: None; similar to Triax-style chaff
01-50 Enemy Missile or volley detonates in chaff and threat is neutralized
51-75 Missile/Volley diverts and may pursue/lock on to other targets
76-00 No Effect! Missile(s) still on target!
Will also temporarily blind and impede flying monsters who fly into it.
Reduce APMs/combat bonuses/ speed by half for 1d4 melees
Payload: 12 per launcher
d) Drop-Tank---Extends range by an additional 200 miles
e) ECM Pod---same as the afore mentioned ECM system
f) Bombs---Can carry ‘iron’ or ‘smart’ bombs; either take the equivalent missile warhead and DOUBLE the blast radius, or can carry TWICE the number of warhead equivalents as missiles

g) Mini-Missile Pod---6-shot missile pod
h) Short Range Missile Pod----3 SRMs per hardpoint
i) Medium Range Missile---1 per hardpoint
j) Light Gunpod---A copy of the Coalition’s own C-200 ‘Dead Man’ rail gun.
Range: 4,000 ft
Damage: 1d4 MD single rd, 4d6 MD per 20 rd burst
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload:400 rd drum(20 bursts)

k) Laser Cannon Pod---A battery-fed pulse laser---3,000 ft range, 6d6 MD per shot, 100 shot battery

Programming:
Navigation: (air) 90%
Read Sensory Instruments 90%

Autonomous Combat Mode gives it the following bonuses:
Attacks per Melee: 4
+2 Strike
+2 Dodge
+2 Roll
+1 Initiative






PSD-21 Surveillance Drone
“How did you get these pictures?!”
“Company secret.”
“Say...who’s that lady beside Prosek?...hell...he ain’t wearing a thing is he? And that don’t look like his wife!”
“Quit drooling...whoever she is, she ain’t underage, so we can hardly nail him on that...”
“You can tell?”
“Cup size.”
“?”
“Classified technology.”
“Oh.”

This is Paladin Steel’s adaptation of a little known pre-Rifts ‘black’ project, the ‘Skunk Works’ D-21 surveillance drone, a stealthy ramjet-powered photo-recon drone that was deployed over Communist China in the late 1960s. References, as well as partial blueprints, to the vehicle were among the records downloaded by Victor Canth from the government files at Area 51, and later handed over to short-lived Eastern Armament’s corporate executor, Paladin Steel. While Victor Canth evidenced no strong interest in UVs(unmanned vehicles), PS and the VFS were already seeing an urgent need for long-range covert reconnaissance, especially of Atlantis and the Coalition. To that end, they re-designed the D-21 to suit their needs.
The PSD-21 looks very much like its ancestor, a sleek, delta-winged airframe built(or rather WRAPPED) around a central jet engine, with a protruding bullet-nosed centerbody. The entire aircraft is sheathed in dark, radar-absorbant materials. Sensors were built into the nose and into an underbelly pallet-bay.
The PSD-21 was designed, like its ancestor, to make pre-programmed flights over enemy territory, remaining in radio silence, until it was recovered(hopefully), on the other end of its flight path, at a pre-determined rendezvous point,. The PSD-21, however, by virtue of its smarter AI brain, could make somewhat more sophisticated decisions in flight, detecting and avoiding potential threats, diverting to look at interesting targets, taking evasive maneuvers to throw off trailing enemies, and even being able to decide if it should self-destruct to prevent imminent capture.
The VFS commenced launching overflights of Atlantis in 103 PA, from ships and submarines off the northern and eastern coasts of Atlantis, to throw off any efforts to track point-of-origin. While it is known that the Splugorth did destroy several of these missions, the slavers never really took the surveillance effort seriously(to PS’s great fortune). Even more importantly, several drones DID made it to safety, with bellies full of photographic and ELINT data.
The PSD-21 continues in service, though its missions are never publicized. The design certainly had an impact on the later Tempest TW Cruise Missile Program, providing much of the design basis.
Type: PSD-21
Class: Semi-Autonomous Unmanned Reconnaissance Vehicle
Date of Introduction: 104 PA
Crew: None, robot drone
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 150
Height: 8 ft
Width: 19 ft wingspan
Length: 43 ft
Weight: 5 tons
Cargo: None; unless the sensor pallet is replaced with a cargo module, in which case it can carry up to 800 lbs of payload/instrumentation
Powerplant:Liquid-Fuelled TurboFan (4,000 mile range) or Nuclear w/ 5 year energy life
Speed: Mach 5 at a ceiling altitude of 90,000 ft
Cost: Not available for sale outside 5ST, but a fully operational drone, ready for use, could fetch up to 7 million credits or more
Systems of Note:
Radar------100 mile range
Basic Robot Optics
Radar Detector/EM Warning Sensor
Inertial Guidance
Long Range Radio/Video Transmission----500 miles
*Optional Autonomous Control or Remote Piloting
*Parachute Recovery System
*Modular Recon Sensor Pallet---Standard Recon mission loadout consists of a Hycon II high-res digital imaging system able to wide-angle and record an image swath 22 miles wide by 800 miles long, with 1 ft image resolution, thermo-imaging and infra-red, low-lite enhance, and EM-band surveillance/recording.
*Auxiliary Sensor Pallets--Secondary sensors include EM-sensors, remote Kirallian still cameras(for recording magic and aural activity), and air samplers(good for sampling air over cities and facilities for industrial efflux).
*Self-Destruct System---Self-contained plasma demolition charge that completely slags the drone beyond salvage/study.
*Stealth Design----The PSD-21 is designed to have a small radar return signature. with a blended wing design, minimal return surfaces, and extensive use of radar absorbent materials. The PSD-21 is -30% to detect with Read Sensory Instrument rolls, and radar-guided weaponry is -2 to strike
Weapons Systems: None
Programming: Standard escape and evade, navigation, and com-security hardwiring. Bonuses: AutoDodge +2

Paladin Steel PSQF-4 ‘Phantom’ Fighter Drone
“My former Fort Ti Academy brothers tend to look down on me because I gave up command of a fighter squadron to manage a wing of drones instead...but when you come over to visit me, they always ask me what it’s like, commanding a ‘phantom wing’ of pilotless aircraft...like they’re expecting us to be all androids and automated equipment on the tarmac...I hardly consider it a ‘phantom wing’, and we aren’t all robots either...I’ve got pilots, the same as everyone else, except that mine get to sit hundreds of miles back from the action in a VR trailer, working the sticks by remote control...makes it a helluva alot easier on the nerves knowing that my boys and girls are safe...
But my birds are pretty smart on their own too...Oh, I know what the cyberneticists say...I meet with them five or six times every day, after all, but sometimes when I walk out to inspect them on the flightline or in the hangars...I swear I can sense those birds are ready and wanting for action...and the older ones, the ones whose programming has seen some action, and added a few hundred gig of ‘learned experience’ on their systems...well, you begin to see patterns in some of them...learn that some of the ‘planes have learned to do certain things in certain ways...so they can react to a situation they’ve encountered before without having to go through the usual logic trees and protocols we programmed them to...
But I draw the line at assigning these things names and personalities...the techs and the pilots may like giving the ‘birds names, but I refer to them by their proper designations...’Blue e6743’, or ‘Red g6587’...these things are machines after all...”
---Colonel Jerome Westkhan, Massachusetts Free State National Air Guard, 2nd UAV Air Wing, 7th Tactical Air Command, Fort Taunton.

This large drone aircraft is an adaptation of the pre-Rifts Q-4 target drone, a remote controlled modification of decommissioned F-4 Phantom fighter jets. PS started deploying squadrons of these aircraft to cover gaps in its air defense net temporarily openned up by the need to cover the Coalition and Free Quebec fronts. PS also had envisioned using hordes of PSQF-4s and other drones to fend off and reconnoiter Splugorth-Atlantean forces with minimal risk to air crews.
The PSQF-4 version resembles its ancestor externally except for a more pronounced droop to the nose and sleek fairing where the cockpit would normally be. Internally, the PSQF-4 is smarter than the PSQF-2, capable of performing quite complex tactical decisions and calculations. The twin main engines have been retained, but are now supplemented by a GMR-coil, that allows the vehicle to perform VTOL/STOL operations(especially important for operations from small unimproved airfields or ship decks), and to briefly hover in ground attack operations. The vehicle has the option of being either liquid- or nuclear-powered; long-range patrol models are typically nuclear powered for endurance. The PSQF-4 has a fully functional set of landing gear; whenever possible, the effort is made to recover the vehicle intact, but being an unmanned drone, it is considered to be expendable as the situation dictates,
The PSQF-4 is a straightforward weapons platform, with no pretense at stealth. It is a low-cost, expendable, unmanned fighter-bomber. PS believes that the drone’s large size actually HELPS its effectiveness, as its radar signature helps convince opponents that it is a manned aircraft, forcing them to divert attention (and hopefully firepower) to deal with the threat.
Type: PSQF-4
Class: Semi-Autonomous Unmanned Fighter Vehicle
Date of Introduction: 107 PA
Crew: None, robot drone
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 150
Wings(2) 30 each
Tail 30
Forward Mounted Rail Gun
Height: 16 ft
Width/Wingspan: 38 ft
Length: 63 ft
Weight: 62,000 lbs
Cargo: None; except for possible pylon pods
Powerplant:Liquid-Fuelled TurboFan(2,000 mile range) or Nuclear w/ 5 year energy life
Speed: Hover to 1,500 MPH(Mach 2.2) but only if carrying AAMs and at high altitude. Standard operational speed with full warload is Mach 1.2. Maximum altitude: 54,000 ft
Cost: A fully equipped PSQF-4 would cost about 2.1 million crtedits for liquid fuel, 4.5 million credits for nuclear. So far, only a handful have been sold/provided to select 5ST allies and affiliated Irregular forces.
Systems of Note:
Radar----80 mile range
Basic Robot Optics
Radar Detector/EM Warning Sensor
Inertial Guidance
Long Range Radio/Video Transmission---range: 500 miles
*Optional Autonomous Control or Remote Piloting
*Parachute Recovery System
*Arrester Hook---The PSQF-4 retains its aircraft carrier arrester hook gear, which greatly assists in recovery operations, especially shipboard carrier operations.


Weapons Systems:
1) 20mm Autocannon(mounted under nose)---This high speed rapid-fire gatling cannon is nothing new to the armaments world; it’s the same cannon mounted on the old IHA Gray Falcon, and has been selected for its simple construction, ease of maintenance, and reliable operation.
Range:4000 ft
Damage: 1d4x10 MD per 40 rd burst; can only fire bursts
Rate of Fire: Standard
Payload: 8,000 rd internal drum(200 bursts)

2) Light Laser Cannon---The old cockpit canopy now sports two recessed light pulse lasers
Range:4000 ft
Damage: 1d4x10 MD per triple shot pulse, 2d4x10 MD per double simultaneous blast(counts as one attack)
Payload: 200 shot battery if conventionally poweredl effectively unlimited if nuclear powered

3) Short Range Missiles(4)---The PSQF-4, like its ancestor, has four underfuselage recesses dedicated to AAMs.

4) Weapons Pylons(5): Each wing has two ordnance pylons, and the main body has a centerline pylon
Wing Pylons:Each can accomodate ONE of the following:
a) Mini-Missile Pod----each hardpoint can accommodate a 10-shot MM pod
b) Short Range Missile Launcher----each hardpoint can accommodate a 5-shot SRM launch box
c) Medium Range Missile Launcher---each hardpoint can accommodate 2 MRMs
or PS 'Skyflash' MRMs.
d) Long Range Missile---each hardpoint can accommodate 1 LRM

e)Light Gunpod-----one gunpod per hardpoint
Range: 3000 ft(12,000 ft in space)
Damage: 5d6 MD per 10 rd burst(can only fire bursts)
Rate of Fire: EPCHH
Payload: 1,000 rds(100 bursts)

f) Light Autocannon----This is actually an attempt to adapt the 20mm ‘Taskin’ Infantry Cannon and ‘Waybur’ OICW’s twenty-millimeter proximity-fuzed ‘smart’ munition.
Range: 3,000 ft
Damage: 4d4 MD single rd, 1d6x10 MD per 5 shot burst, 2d6x10 MD per 10 rd burst
Fragmentation burst does 4d4 MD to 5 ft blast radius.
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: 500 rds

g)Flare/Chaff Launcher Pod--
Range: Close Defense
Damage: None; similar to Triax-style chaff
01-50 Enemy Missile or volley detonates in chaff and threat is neutralized
51-75 Missile/Volley diverts and may pursue/lock on to other targets
76-00 No Effect! Missile(s) still on target!
Will also temporarily blind and impede flying monsters who fly into it.
Reduce APMs/combat bonuses/ speed by half for 1d4 melees
Payload: 18 per launcher

h)Bombs---can carry ‘iron’ or ‘smart’ bombs; either take the equivalent missile warhead and DOUBLE the blast radius, or can carry TWICE the number of warhead equivalents as missiles

i)Light Weapons Dispenser(L-SAW)--This is essentially an oversized bomblet dispenser that can be used to bomb targets directly, ‘seed’ areas with minelets, or can launched to act as a stand-off ‘glide bomb’.
Range: SAW has an effective range of 10 miles in atmosphere Submunnitions can be launched up to 300 ft out to either side of the SAW’s flight path.
Damage: (AP Grenade) 4d6 MD to 8 ft area
(Chemical Grenade) Varies by chemical type and atmospheric conditions. A chemical grenade will generally generate a cloud of aerosol 15 ft in radius.
(HE Shell) 5d6 MD to 20 ft area
(Fragmentation Mine) 4d6 MD to 12 ft area
(Incendiary Bomb) Does 4d6 MD to 40 ft area, does an additional 2d6 MD for 1d6 melees, and 1d6 MD per melee for an additional 2d4 melees
(Angel Hair)---Does NO damage, but against conventional power generators and uncovered power lines and distribution systems, it can short out power grids, clog generator air intakes(80% effectiveness against industrial generators and internal combustion engines), and be a general nuisance to clean up.
Rate of Fire: A SAW can volley its submunitions in any combination
Payload:(Typical loadouts)
200 AP/Chemical grenades
OR
50 HE/anti-vehicle grenades
OR
50 Fragmentation Mines
OR
25 Incendiary Bombs
OR
250 spools of wire, each spool holding up to 4,000 ft of aluminum-coated filament

j)Drop Tanks---The two inner Hard Points can be fitted with drop tanks, extending the range of liquid-fuelled models by an additional 200 miles per tank.

Centerline Pylon:Can accomodate ONE of the following:
a) Heavy Droptank---Extends range of liquid-fuelled models by 400 miles
b) Cargo Pod-----Up to 1,000 lbs of cargo
c) Recon Pod---Standard Recon mission loadout consists of a Hycon II high-res digital imaging system able to wide-angle and record an image swath 22 miles wide by 800 miles long, with 1 ft image resolution, thermo-imaging and infra-red, low-lite enhance, and EM-band surveillance/recording.
d) Mini-Missiles---24 MMs
e) Short Range Missile Pod----12 SRMs
f) Medium Range Missile Pod---5 MRMs
g) Long Range Missile---ONE LRM may be carried
h) Heavy Gatling Cannon------ This oversized weapon, actually a six-barrelled ‘Taskin’ Rifle spews high explosive shells at a rate that would melt a lesser weapon’s barrel.
The ‘B’ model has been configured as a rifle pod with a longer barrel, and twenty percent more range.
Range: 5,000 ft
Damage: 4d4 MD single shot (2 ft blast radius)
1d4x10 MD per 5 rd burst (2.5 feet blast radius)
2d4x10 MD(3 feet blast radius) per 10 rd burst(but -1 to strike)
4d6x10 MD(6 feet blast radius) for a 40 rd burst ( -2 to strike)
Rate of Fire: EPCHH
Payload: 2,000 rd drum

i)PS-XGECAL 50 “Ripkiller-C” ---A new weapon, based on the pre-Rifts .50 caliber GECAL 50 Six Barrel Machine Gun. This weapon fires high explosive shells(based on the Wellington Industries Heavy Explosive shells) over three miles, to devastating effect. In theory, the XGECAL 50 can fire off 8,000 rounds per minute(or 2,000 rounds a melee), but PS has limited the weapon to a maximum of 100 rounds per burst , and even that can shoot the magazines dry in one melee! Only a special coolant jacket, shock-absorbing stabilizer, and burst limiter prevent this weapon from tearing itself apart under maximum rate of fire, and keeps enough rounds on target to inflict maximum damage. The weapon also tears out its meter-long barrel linings faster than any other weapon in PS service(a cannon barrel is estimated to have a standard combat life of 4,000 shots).
Range: 19,000 ft!
Damage: 1d4 MD single shot, 4d6 MD per 12 shot burst(1 attack), 1d4x10+10 MD per 24 rd burst(2 attacks), 2d6x10 MD per 60 rd burst(3 attacks), 4d6x10 MD per 120 shot burst(takes ALL attacks that melee)
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: 1,200 round drum (10 full-melee bursts)

j) Laser Pod-----This is the PS-RFL-25, the so-called “Prosek’s Gift’ thanks to its being derived from a reverse-engineered Coalition weapon!
Range: 6,000 ft
Damage:2d4x10 MD per blast
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

k) Particle Beam Cannon Pod-----Same range as the laser pod, same damage potential, but slightly higher damage curve.
Range: 6,000 ft
Damage: 1d6x10+20 MD per blast
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload:Effectively unlimited

l) Bombs---can carry ‘iron’ or ‘smart’ bombs; either take the equivalent missile warhead and DOUBLE the blast radius, or can carry TWICE the number of warhead equivalents as missiles

m) Weapons Dispenser(SAW)--This is essentially an oversized bomblet dispenser that can be used to bomb targets directly, ‘seed’ areas with minelets, or can launched to act as a stand-off ‘glide bomb’.
Range: SAW has an effective range of 20 miles in atmosphere Submunnitions can be launched up to 300 ft out to either side of the SAW’s flight path.
Damage: (AP Grenade) 4d6 MD to 8 ft area
(Chemical Grenade) Varies by chemical type and atmospheric conditions. A chemical grenade will generally generate a cloud of aerosol 15 ft in radius.
(HE Shell) 5d6 MD to 20 ft area
(Fragmentation Mine) 4d6 MD to 12 ft area
(Incendiary Bomb) Does 4d6 MD to 40 ft area, does an additional 2d6 MD for 1d6 melees, and 1d6 MD per melee for an additional 2d4 melees
(Angel Hair)---Does NO damage, but against conventional power generators and uncovered power lines and distribution systems, it can short out power grids, clog generator air intakes(80% effectiveness against industrial generators and internal combustion engines), and be a general nuisance to clean up.
Rate of Fire: A SAW can volley its submunitions in any combination
Payload:(Typical loadouts)
400 AP/Chemical grenades
OR
100 HE/anti-vehicle grenades
OR
100 Fragmentation Mines
OR
50 Incendiary Bombs
OR
500 spools of wire, each spool holding up to 4,000 ft of aluminum-coated filament

n)Plasma Cannon Pod
Range: 6,000 ft
Damage: 2d6x10 MD per blast
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload:Effectively unlimited

Programming:
Navigation: (air) 90%
Read Sensory Instruments 90%

Autonomous Combat Mode gives it the following bonuses:
Attacks per Melee: 5
+2 Strike
+3 Dodge
+2 Roll
+1 Initiative

[Aramanthus]

Awesome new material Taalismn! Are we going to see a construction platform for land?

[taalismn]

Paladin Steel C-130/2 Hercules II Air Transport
(aka ‘Herky-Bird’, ‘Dumbo’, ‘Herc’, ‘Tilt-o--Whirl’)

“It’s not the fastest, it’s not the sleekest, it’s not the best armed, or the best armored, it’s not particularly pretty, or anywhere stealthy...but IT GETS THE JOB DONE. For that, in my heart and mind, it soars like an eagle.”
---Captain Malaci Asro, Greater New England Air National Guard

“I’ve run the gauntlet of Skycycles, SAMAS, and rocket-bikes to deliver arms to Kingsdale, I’ve helped swipe pre-Rifts techno-secrets from military sites out West and played hide and seek among the mesas with Coalition stealth fighters, I’ve evacuated refugees from burning Tolkeen, I’ve watched Coalition Navy maneuvers on the Old Texas coast, I’ve dropped SEALs off the coast of CS Iron Heart in the dark of night, I’ve traded fire with CS anti-aircraft batteries in the Ohio, and I’ve nearly buzz-cut the aerials off a CS destroyer off the coast of Newfoundland in the fog....I’ve been all around the Coalition States in a Herky-Bird, and it’s been a real ride.”
---Chief Warrant Officer Dozo Uni, Greater New England Air National Guard, 7th Airborne Logistical Transport Company.

“What did that big guy say when he got off the plane? The whole trip I though he was going to break loose and start tearing things apart, especially when those Splugorth fliers jumped us over the Pyrenees...But he quieted right down after some the hairest flying I’ve had to do a long time....I was sure he was going to give us all sorts of flak and grief, what with the banging we took from those Kittani skyrats..”
“I was next to him...he put his hand on the plane and said something that sounded like either Atlantian or Greek; something about “I bless this creation that bears my name”, and just walked off.”
“Weird, man, weird...”
---Overheard at the Paladin Steel freight terminal at Farnborough Field, Kingdom of Bath, England.

The C-130 Hercules was introduced in 1954, pre-Rifts, to meet a requirement for the American Empire’s USAF Tactical Air Command, which was looking for a heavy airlift transport that could carry heavy loads long distance, under virtually all weather conditions, reliably. A virtual revolution in aircraft design, the original C-130 surprised even its own designers, with the sturdiness and adapatibility of its basic design. The Hercules proved that it could be modified to keep abreast of technological advances, or even prove more reliable, efficient, and economical without them. As a result, the Hercules managed to outlive a large number of ‘Hercules replacement’ aircraft developed over the years, rendering _them_ obsolete! The C-130 soon spawned a wide variety of formal mdel variations(over 60!) plus numerous individual modifications and refits for the various military , commerical, and foreign users who acquired C-130s. The basic C-130 design became so widespread and renowned that at the time of the Coming of the Rifts, nearly a hundred years after its introduction, the 130 was still common and in operation around the world.
The Coming of the Rifts destroyed most of the world’s heavy airlift capability, and the reason for it, leaving heavy air transport capability in the hands of a few surviving/newly emergent superpowers like the NGR and the Coalition States. However, as the kingdoms of the New Earth grow more diverse and powerful, and both military and commerical frontiers expand, the need for reliable heavy airlift capability has returned, and a number of companies have risen to fill the gap.
Paladin Steel is one of those companies, and has chosen to resurrect the old C-130 ‘Herky Bird’, revamping the design to better survive in the post-apocalyptic world. Looking long and hard at the openning market and its requirements, Paladin Steel has radically modified the Hercules while still retaining the sturdiness and reliability that have become legendary.
Recognizing (as had other post-Rifts designers) that prepared hard-top airfields, and even cleared dirt strips, are a thing of the past, Paladin Steel chose to give the new C-130/2 full VTOL capability. Banking on their previous experience producing copies of the VC-22S Osprey Vertol, the engineers at PS have given the Hercules II a tilt-wing, similar to the LTV-Hiller-Ryan XC-142A turpoprop vertol testbed. PS also employed lightweight MDC composites and metal alloys to armor and reinforce the Hercules II in protection comparable, if not superior, to most other heavy air vehicles of the New Age. Another addition is the manned gunnery position in the tail(inspired, perhaps, by a similar design feature in the Hercules’ Soviet Cold War-era opposite numbers). Paladin Steel also has seen fit to offer a choice of upgraded liquid-fuel turbo-prop engines, or a fusion nuclear powerplant, fo more efficient, reliable operation.
The basic C-130/2 aircraft comes unarmed, but PS expects most users will want to add additional equipment and weapons systems, and offers a few options along those lines. Paladin Steel has even begun offering a few major variants, including its AC-130/2E Gunship(see below).
Paladin Steel initially produced C-130/2s at its Lake Champlain facility, but has since openned production lines at Paladin Steel West, and Lazlo. There has also been some talk of licensing the design to the New Roman Republic, with both troop carrier and maritime patrol versions under consideration.
Since the C-130/2’s introduction, it has been enthusiastically received, and Paladin Steel has made a hefty bundle selling the aircraft to the open market. PS’s fleet of green-liveried transports has also become a common and welcome sight to PS customers, the aircraft delivering loads of gear and munitions(and sometimes delivering themselves, maintenance equipment, and spare parts to new C-130/2 operators). The air freighters have become faurly ubiquitous throughout GNE territory, being in the service of the military(all services), corporate, and commercial sectors, to the poimt that it’s been joked that the ‘Herky’ is the national bird of Greater New England. Though faster and more advanced transports, such as GMR-propelled/levitated craft, have since become available, the C-130/2 continues in production and demand.

Here’s a few pre-Rifts variants for inspiration: Paladin Steel will gladly modify its basic C-130/2 to meet the customer’s specific request(provided they put money up front).
HC-130B SAR aircraft
RC-130 Photo-survey aircraft
C-130G Communications Relay aircraft
KC-130H, AC-130H, HC-130H, HC-130P, KC-130R Tankers
LC-130R Antarctic Supply aircraft(fitted with skies)
M-130E Missile Carrier
WC-130E Weather Reconnaisance aircraft
EC-130ARE AWACS-style EW aircraft
DC-130A Drone Carrier(carried 4 Ryan Firebee RPV targets under the wings, and the control systems to direct them)
C-130K RAF version built/rebuilt in England
Note: Early designers also experimented with a sea-plane conversion (in RC model form) of the C-130, to give you some idea of the potential spin-off design potentials.

Type: PS-C-130/2
Class: Airlift Transport and Airborne Multi-Role Platform
Crew: 5(pilot, co-pilot, radioman, and two flight engineers/cargo handlers)
Passengers: 128 troops OR 50 powered armor OR 93 patients on stretchers plus 6 attendants/sitting wounded.
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 400
Wings(2) 180 each
Turboprop Engines(4) 120 each
Tail Assembly 190
Rear Cargo Door/Ramp 120
(Optional) Wing Tanks(2) 80 each
Height: 38 ft
Width: 133 ft
Length: 98 ft
Weight: 175,000 lbs
Cargo: 43,000 lbs, in a cargo bay 10 ft wide by 9 ft high, by 50 ft long.
Powerplant: Liquid Fuel (2,500 mile range) or Nuclear Fusion w/ 15-year energy life.
Speed:(VTOL Mode) Hover to 100 MPH, max altitude of 7,000 ft
(Flight Mode) 370 MPH, max altitude of 33,000 ft

Market Cost: Liquid Fuel 4 million credits, nuclear 10 million credits.
Systems of Note:
Standard Aircraft Systems, plus:
*All Weather Performance
*Emergency Flotation Units(can keep the aircraft afloat for 2d4x10 hours)
*Cockpit Emergency Ejection Seats(4)
*Toilet
*Rear Cargo Ramp/Door
*Internal Cargo Bay Winch and Roller/Conveyor Assembly
*Cabin Environmental/Radiation Shielding and Thermo-Insulation
*Internal Fire Control System/Fire Extinguishers
*External Running Lights
*Wing De-icers
*Water Cooler and small refrigerator(2ftx1 ftx1ft)
*Air Condition/Internal Environment Control w/ air filtration, 48 hours recycling/life support capability, and cabin pressurization.
*Radio: 200 mile range w/ frequency-jumping and basic scrambling
*Low-Light Vision Enhancement
*Radar: 100 mile range, track/ID 25 targets.
*All-terrain Wheeled Landing Gear

Weapons Systems: None standard

Options:
The following are a few of the more common options available from Paladin Steel:

*Flare/Chaff Launchers--The Hercules II can mount flare and chaff dispensers to counter enemy sensors and missiles. Up to eight(8 ) launchers can be mounted; two in the tail, two in the wing roots, one on each wing, and one on each wheel sponson.
Range: Close Defense
Damage: None; similar to Triax-style chaff
01-50 Enemy Missile or volley detonates in chaff and threat is neutralized
51-75 Missile/Volley diverts and may pursue/lock on to other targets
76-00 No Effect! Missile(s) still on target!
Will also temporarily blind and impede flying monsters who fly into it.
Reduce APMs/combat bonuses/ speed by half for 1d4 melees
Payload: 20 per launcher
Cost: Basic Launcher Unit costs 2,000 credits. Flare/Chaff bundles cost 120 credits each

*Tail Gun Position-A tail gun mount can be fitted above the rear cargo door/ramp. The tail gun position can either be manned or controlled by remote control, and fitted with a rail gun, autocannon, or energy weapon(or paired weapons) as required/specified/installed by the buyer(weapons cost extra)
MDC of Tail Mount: 60
Cost: 50,000 credits for manned position(access way has to be provided from the main cabin), 70,000 credits for remote control.

*Drop Tanks(2)(For Liquid Fuel models only)
Two 80 MDC heavy external fuel tanks can be added to the wings of the C-130/2. Each holds nearly 1,000 gallons of fuel, and each extends the range/flight time of the aircraft by 1/3(600 miles)
Cost: 50,000 credits each

*Hush Props---These specialized propellors look like multi-vaned pinwheel spinners, but they reduce the airplane’s prop noise by some 50%. They are popular with operators making night landings and supply drops, who want to reduce the chances of advertizing their presence.
Cost: 90,000 credits

*JATO Units---Jet Assisted TakeOff bottles, that allow the aircraft to take off in less than 800 ft of runway...Essentially modified short range missile engines, up to 6 JATO units can be mounted on the undercarriage(uses two in each use). JATO units can be made from modified SRMs(-10% to Armorer roll to adapt them) but PS sells units for 800 credits apiece.

*EMP Shielding---Extensive use of non-conductive materials, shock barriers, capacitator-sponges, redundant systems, and energy-disipation technology protects the aircraft from the damaging effects of electro-magnetic pulse, Triax Lightning Cannon, and other anti-electronics directed energy weaponry.
Cost: 500,000 credits

*Solar Wing---The dorsal surface of the high-wing and main fuselage is fitted with high efficiency solar panels, and the powerplants supplanted/complemented with a Super-Solar Power System. Switching over to the electric power system drops maximum speed to 160 MPH. Flying in broad daylight, mostly unobstructed sunlight gives the batteries an 8-hour charge; cloudy and overcast days cut available power to three hours. This can be used in conjunction with a liquid-fuel system to extend range and conserve fuel.
Cost: 3 million credits

Variants:
*AC-130/2 “Puff the Magic Dragon” Spectre Gunship
“And the rain comes roaring in!”
An armed variant mounting a lethal broadside of heavy weapons, intended for ground fire support and generally levelling large targets. The AC-130/2E mounts most of its weapons and special sensors on one side of the aircraft(specified at the time of ordering), generally the left side of the aircraft, giving it a rather asymmetrical distribution of firepower, and taking up most, if not all, of its available cargo capacity with the weapons and fire control equipment. The AC-130/2E is typically escorted by smaller, faster, fighter aircraft and flying power armors to protect it, but that doesn’t lessen its effectiveness as a ground attack aircraft. Anyone who has endured a sweeping broadside by the Hercules II gunship and survived, is probably one of the luckiest bastards alive.
Paladin Steel has only manufactured a few dozen of these aircraft so far, but they ave served to devastating effect when fielded.
Changes to the Basic C-130/2:
Crew: Add 5 gunners/fire control officers, and 4 EW/ECM technicians. Can only carry an additional 10 passengers(or 5 power armor), or 2,00 lbs of cargo/spare ammunition.
Additional MDC/Armor Locations:
Sensor Pods/Arrays(3) 40 each
Cannon Mounts(6) 50 each
Main Body +120
Powerplant: ALWAYS Nuclear-powered
Cost: 20 million credits
Special Systems:
*Forward Optics Turret w/ Low-Light and Thermal Imaging Optics(effective range of 2,000 ft), Laser Targeting: 7000 ft, adds a +1 to strike with ranged weapons, and a laser designator for ‘painting’ targets for laser-guided smart weapons; 7 mile range, and gives laser-guided weapons a +2 to strike.

*EM/EW Radar Detection---Alerts the crew to the presence of hostile EM activity, such as targeting radars, and can be set to automatically fire flare/chaff countermeasure systems.

*Side-Scan Radar---Microwave radar system able to penetrate fog, smoke, and even forest canopy, to locate the hard shapes of enemy robots, power armor, vehicles, bunkers, and even hardshelled supernatural beings. 5 mile range, and gives a +3 to strike with long range weapons.
An advanced targeting computer attached to the radar can scan the readings and identify specific objects from a memory of 4,800 different object-profiles. The use of this system, gives the sensor operator a +15% to Read Sensory Instruments skill.

*Weapon Gyro Stabilization---Computerized servos and gyrostabilizers keep the weapons locked on target through violent pitches/yaws and vibration. (+3 to strike)

*Computerized Targeting: All the weapons can be directed to fire on individual targets, or can fire on one target(once per melee). +1 to strike on individual or synchronized firing.

*EMP Shielding --Standard

Total Bonus to Strike w/ All Weapons: (+8)

Weapons Systems:
1) PS-144 Autocannon(1)---A copy of the Coalition’s own C-144 heavy autocannon(mounted on the IAR-2). The Paladin Steel version(as mounted on the AC-130/2E) has superior fire-direction and recoil control, negating the range penalties imposed on the IAR-2’s guns. The AC-130/2E mounts one of these weapons in a side mount, w/ 60-degree angle of elevation/depression/traverse.
Range: 10,000 ft
Damage: 2d4x10 MD per blast, w/ 10 ft blast radius
Rate of Fire: Twice per melee
Payload: 60 shells

---Later models of the AC-130/2E, especially those in GNE service, mount a more powerful 100mm MB Massdriver Cannon(PS-MDJ100M).
Range: 27,000 ft (5.4 miles)
Damage: High Explosive(HE)---- 1d6x10 MD to 20 ft radius
High Explosive Anti-Tank(HEAT)---- 2d6 x10 MD to 10 ft radius
Fragmentation--- 2d6x10 MD to 30 ft radius
Plasma-----3d6x10 MD to 35 ft radius
(APFSDSDU)(Armor Piercing Fin Stabilized Discarding Sabot Depleted Uranium) 4d6x10 MD out to 11,000 ft, 2d6x10 MD out to maximum range
Rate of Fire: Four per melee
Payload: 80 shells

2) PS/IH-44L(E) Vulcan Lasers(3)-----Enhanced range PS-manufactured version of the original IHA laser gatling. Two are mounted in lateral mounts, with 60-degree angle of elevation/depression/traverse. A third is nose-mounted for aircraft defense, with 180-degree traverse, 45 degree elevation/depression.
Range: 6,000 ft
Damage: 3d4x10 MD per rapid fire pulse burst
Rate of Fire: EGCHH(usually 5-6 shots per melee)
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

---Some variants of the AC-130/2E replace the lasers with longer-ranged, but ammunition-dependent, 40mm autocannon;
Range: 2.6 miles
Damage:(Proximity Fuzed Fragmentation) 3d6 MD to 15 ft blast radius
(Armor Piercing Tracer) 5d6 MD single shot
(High Explosive Tracer) 4d6 MD to 10 ft blast radius
Rate of Fire: EPCHH
Payload: 400 rounds

3) Lateral Rapid-Fire Rail Guns(2)---The early models of the AC-130/2E used PSC-104 Tri-Barrel Rail Guns(6,000 ft range, 1d6x10 MD per 60 rd burst, 10,000 rds per cannon), but more modern models use more powerful Paladin Steel 20mm six-barrelled chainguns;
Range: 19,000 ft
Damage: 4d4 MD single shot (2 ft blast radius)
1d6x10 MD per 5 rd burst(5 ft bast radius)
2d6x10 MD per 10 rd burst (10 ft spray radius)
6d6x10 MD for a 40 rd burst(is -4 to strike targets smaller than 60 ft)
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: Each weapon is served by a 2,000 rd ammunition drum

4) Flare/Chaff Launchers(8)---The Hercules II GUnship mounts the maximum number of flare/chaff launchers with a total of 160 flare/chaff bundles between them.

5) Towed Decoy---The Gunship can deploy a towed decoy pod that puts out false radar returns/signals similar to/stronger than the the AC-130/2E itself, in order to decoy missiles and radar-guided weapons away from the main ship. The pod itself weighs 60 lbs, ahd 10 MDC, is roughly torpedo-shaped, and is towed at the end of a 2,00 ft line behind the aircraft. The decoy has a 60% chance of decieving radar systems.
Cost: 8,000 credits to replace a destroyed decoy pod.

6) ECM Jamming---*ECCM system: A semi-automatic system that uses electronic encryption and frequency jumping to (attempt to) negate jamming systems. The system has a 25% chance of negating radar or communications jamming (non-magical) when operating on automatic.
Having an Electronic Warfare Skill gains a +15% bonus to operating this system.
Note that this only applies to received communications (the system filters them out from the jamming clutter) and sensory data received by that unit alone (other units cannot make use of it, unless they have an unaffected datalink/info-share with the ECCM equipped unit. Magic/psychic jamming is NOT affected by this system.

*Sensor Jamming---An active, manned system that gives a 30%+operator’s ECM bonus chance of jamming enemy radar, including radar guided munitions and missiles. Effective range of 25 miles.

7) Wing Pod Launchers(2)(30 MDC each)
The Gunship can also carry a variety of flares and sensor pods in underwing pods. Great for designating targets. lighting up battlefields, or seeding sensor nets and creating free fire zones in the path of an enemy.
Damage/Effects:
---Smoke: Multi-colored smoke cloud(10-20 ft radius)
---Parachute Flare: Illuminates an area of 1 mile for 3d6 melees
---Seismic Sensor: Parachutes/dives into soft ground, and can detct/monitor the movement of objects heavier than 50 lbs in a 600 ft radius for 2d4 days. Can generally identify whether the object is human, mechanical, or animal(60% chance of correct identification). Radio telemetry of 80 miles. For an extra 450 credits, the probe can be set to self-destruct(3d6 MD to a 5 ft radius).
Payload: Each pod can hold 10 flares/smoke grenades, or 10 sensor pods.
Cost: Flares/Smoke: 100 credits each
Sensor Pods: 2,000 credits each
Note: The above are standard , off-the-shelf systems sold by Paladin Steel(generally subcontracted to smaller, local, works). If you can find a superior system; use it: Paladin Steel will gladly install any hardware provided by the buyer at the time of aircraft purchase(though this costs 10-20% over normal installation fees---See Rifts: Golden Age Weapons Smiths for general prices).

[taalismn]

Paladin Steel DH Caribou II Air Transport Aerodyne
“Ever do a drogue-extraction drop? Dropping like a rock, scrapping tree tops, with the rear door open and ramp dropped, the slipstream screaming like a banshee...the drogue flips out the back, the chute opens...or the hook catches if you’re using a ground rig, ...the line goes taut, and for a moment you wonder if you really unblocked the pallet and are about to feel the aircraft rip apart on you....Then the whole pallet slides out the back, into the void, and hopefully only a short fall...You better not be standing in front of the pallet on the ramp when it goes, otherwise you’re going out with it...Then it’s gone and the ship’s grabbing for altitude because it just dumped a load and is feeling a whole heckuva lot lighter...”
---Airman Patrick Coller, Vermont Air National Guard

“Got a fun one, you babies. Local warlord by the name of ‘King Kalos the Invincible’s’ apparently been doing some landscaping....He’s taken over a mountain pass here and has dammed up the river to play water politics with the communities downstream. The good people along the rapidly drying-up river don’t feel like paying perpetual water-usage tax to the latest king of the mountain, but they ARE willing to pay us a big lump sum to take out the dam and dump Kalos down the drain. Should be easy, because Kalos has built his new capital on the shores of the new lake he’s making, so hitting the dam means collateral damage to his headquarters and the bulk of his forces...
And that’s the problem too. He’s concentrated the bulk of his private army right around the dam. He’s got missile launchers, ack-ack, and intel sez he’s got a dozen gargoyles backing him....We gotta hit him soon, before the spring rains mean that blowing the dam will flood out the downstreamers, so waiting for a land push to lay seige is out of the question. And we don’t want word of the locals hiring us to get back to him, so he can lay on more defenses and maybe hire some extra muscle of his own.
We’re going in in two days, with every Caribou bomber we got ...I know some of you are still green handling the new planes, but they’re the only ships we got that have the bombload to do this right...That dam’s going to take some cracking, and it can’t be done with just strafing...Plus we’re going to level ‘the Invincible’s’ mountain resort...That means full war-load...The rest of our ships will play air cover, so it won’t be just the bombers...Make sure your IFF equipment’s working; I want no friendly-fire incidents in the air...Meanwhile, our transport planes and paratroopers are going to be playing ‘tag’ with Kalos’ tribute collectors down-river...hopefully, he’ll be thinking all the trouble’s down river, that he won’t be looking for an attack on his swimming pool...”
---Major Maypool, “ALS(Air-Land-Sea) Offensive Services”

The Caribou II Vertol was developed by Paladin Steel to meet the contract requirements of a Canadian buyer, who was looking for a reliable, rough field operations-capable, medium air freighter with tactical military capabilities and all-weather performance. Paladin Steel chose to adapt performance data from the pre-Rifts Dehavilland Caribou STOL air transport, knowing the aircraft to have a good reputation for reliability, and also knowing that the DH background would appeal to the Canadians. As the buyers turned out to be affiliated with the Tundra Rangers, with a very strong sense of Canadian history, this move turned out to be sound marketing on all points.
Like the Hercules II, the Caribou II bears a superficial resemblance to its pre-Rifts namesake. A long, narrow fuselage, blunt nose, and a high struck ‘T’ tail show a certain functional ancestoral kinship to the Dehavilland Canada Buffalo and Caribou transport planes. However, Paladin Steel has radically redesigned the wing and propulsion systems for VTOL aerodyne operations. The Caribou II has short, stubby wings, with a forward airfoil, and a rear, slightly higher, wing extension with a vertical lift fan in it, in each wing. Each wing ends in a rotating jet pod and folding winglet. Two fluke-like wing strakes on the forward ventral surface of the aircraft contain additional control surfaces, puffer jets, and a set of mini-missile launchers. On the ground, the Caribou II sits on a retractable tricycle landing gear. The Caribou II has all the grace of a flying boxcar, and only Dwarves would call it a beautiful piece of engineering. Yet the Caribou II is fast, maneuverable, and can take a considerable amount of punishment without appreciable degradation of performance. Like many PS designs, it takes to modification without complaint, and is sturdy, reliable, and affordably priced.
As an air freighter, the Caribou II can carry up to 8 tons of cargo, thirty-two paratroopers, or sixteen power armors. A rear cargo door and ramp under the high-lifted tail facilitates loading/offloading and paratrooper drop operations.
Tactically, the Caribou II has proven surprisingly capable. In addition to being a reliable transport aircraft, the Caribou II can serve quite ably as an attack aircraft and support weapons platform. Its VTOL capabilities, excellent armor protection, and heavy weaponry(for a transport aircraft) give the Caribou II an unexpectedly heavy punch for a ‘light’ transport . The variants are even more impressive; the DH-Bomber configuration rivals purpose-built bombers for effectiveness, and the maritime patrol conversions have shown good performance in the ASW and anti-shipping roles.

The design turned out so capable that PS licensed the design back from the original contractees, and began producing the Caribou II for Greater New England’s own forces, where it often serves alongside larger C-130/2 Hercules VTOLs in the air transport role. The two maritime variants first appeared in the service of the GNE Navy and Coast Guard, patroling the long New England coastline. Later, PS began making the design available to other kingdoms and mercenary units, where it has been enjoying similar success.
Meanwhile, the Caribou II has begun appearing with the Tundra Rangers on patrols of the northern wilderness. Light bomber conversions have also been seen in the Monster Zone near the Calgary Rift, and in anti-Xiticix operations. This has suggested to some that the Tundra Rangers are taking a more aggressive and overt stance in operations against both menaces.
Type: PS-DH-VTOL-2
Class: Medium VTOL Tactical Transport Aerodyne
Crew: Four(pilot, co-pilot, 2 gunners), plus 1-32 troops/passengers, or 16 power armors/full conversion cyborgs
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 450
Cockpit 90
Wings(2) 120 each
Engine Pods(2) 130 each
Mini-Missile Winglets(2) 45 each
Tail Turret 45
Tail Assembly 120
Rear Ramp 110
Height: 31 ft at tail
Width: 42 ft
Length: 72 ft
Weight: 30,000 lbs
Cargo: 8 tons. Cargo Deck is roughly 10.5 ft x 35 ft x9 ft. Can lift up to 15 tons slung under the main hull, but reduce speed to 200 MPH.
Powerplant: Liquid Fuel(500 mile range) or Nuclear w/ 20 year energy life.
Speed: Hover to 400 MPH, typical cruising speed is 250 MPH. Maximum altitude of 25,000 ft.
Market Cost: Conventionally powered model costs 3.6 million credits, Nuclear costs 12 million
Systems of Note:
Standard Aircraft Systems, plus:
*Long Range Radio---500 mile range
*Distress Homing Beacon
*Long Range Radra---60 miles
*Laser Targeting System(+1 strike w/ ranged weaponry)
*Combat Computer
*Targeting Computer(+1 strike w/ ranged weaponry)
*Complete environmental pilot and crew compartment(w/ full air filtration and 72-hour independent life support)
*Crew Ejection Seats

Weapons Systems:
1) Nose Cannon(2)---Recessed into the sides of the forward fuselage are two powerful laser cannons.
Range: 8,000 ft
Damage: 1d4x10 MD per single cannon burst
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: 1000 shot conventional battery. Effectively Unlimited on nuclear models.

2) Tail Gun(1)---The Caribou II has a tail turret mounting a double-barrelled laser cannon, for use in dissuading attackers and for covering loading/unloading operations while on the ground. The standard weapon is a PS-34L laser.
Range: 4,000 ft
Damage: 3d6 MD single shot, 6d6 MD per dual burst
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: 1000 shot conventional battery. Effectively Unlimited on nuclear models.

3) Mini-Missile Winglets(2)---Just under the main fuselage are two fluke-like winglets holding internal mini-missile batteries.
Range: Varies by Missile Type
Damage:Varies by Missile Type
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-6
Payload: 12 each launcher, 24 total.

4) Underwing Hardpoints(4, 2 under each wing)---Under each wing are two hardpoints for carrying weaponry. Each hardpoint can accomodate ONE of the following:
a) Mini-Missile Pod(32 mini-missiles)
b) Short Range Missile Pod(9 SRMs)
c)Medium Range Missiles/Torpedoes---3 per pylon
d) Long Range Missiles/Torpedoes---1 per pylon

e) Hellfire Anti-Armor Missiles( 1 mile range, 2d4x10 MD, +5 to strike) Applicable only against ground targets(only+3 to strike against airborne targets). 4 per pylon.

f) ‘Black Talon’ LAAM Pods---These are light ‘smart’ anti-aircraft missiles with enhanced warheads, similar in concept to the pre-Rifts ‘Stinger’ SAMs.
Range: 3 miles
Damage: 3d4x10 MD to 40 ft blast radius
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1,2,3, or 4(all)
Payload: 8 per pod
Bonus: +5 to strike, and gets TWO attempts to strike the target(agile enough to loop back on a target and try again)
Cost: 60 ,000 credits per launcher, 10,000 credits per missile

g)Medium Range AAM Launcher Pod--Each pod holds 6 missiles each...the ‘SkyFlash’ ASRAAMM is a favorite---Each pod holds 8 missiles
Range: 15 miles
Damage: 6d6 MD per each SRM missile(3d4x10 MD per volley)
Bonuses:+3 to strike

h)20mm Long-Barrelled Gunpod
Range: 4,000 ft(16,000 ft in space)
Damage: 4d4 MD single shot (2 ft blast radius)
1d4x10 MD per 5 rd burst (2.5 feet blast radius)
2d4x10 MD(3 feet blast radius) per 10 rd burst(but -1 to strike)
4d6x10 MD(6 feet blast radius) for a 40 rd burst ( -2 to strike)
Rate of Fire: EPCHH
Payload: 460 rd drum
Cost: 60,000 credits

i)40mm Gauss Cannon Pod--- These cannons use powerful magnetic pulses to hurl explosive shells, or dense-cored armor penetrators
Range: 15,000 ft
Damage:High Explosive(HE)----1d4x10 MD to 8 ft radius
High Explosive Anti-Tank(HEAT)---- 1d6x10 MD to 5 ft radius
Fragmentation--- 5d6 MD to 20 ft radius
Plasma----- 1d6x10 MD to 10 ft radius
(APFSDSDU)(Armor Piercing Fin Stabilized Discarding Sabot Depleted Uranium) 2d6x10 MD out to 7,500 ft, 1d4x10 MD out to maximum range
Rate of Fire: Four times per melee
Payload:100 rds each

j) Laser Pod-----This is the PS-RFL-25, the so-called “Prosek’s Gift’ thanks to its being derived from a reverse-engineered Coalition weapon!
Range: 6,000 ft
Damage:2d4x10 MD per blast
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: 200 shot battery if conventionally powered. Effectively Unlimited if nuclear powered

k)Flare/Chaff Launcher Pod
Range: Close Defense
Damage: None; similar to Triax-style chaff
01-50 Enemy Missile or volley detonates in chaff and threat is neutralized
51-75 Missile/Volley diverts and may pursue/lock on to other targets
76-00 No Effect! Missile(s) still on target!
Will also temporarily blind and impede flying monsters who fly into it.
Reduce APMs/combat bonuses/ speed by half for 1d4 melees
Payload: 20 per launcher

l)Drop Tanks(applicable only to conventionally powered/liquid fuelled models). Each tank extends range by 50% Each tank has 60 MD and can be jettisoned.

m) Spray Tanks---Designed to dispense chemical agents on the battlefield, agrcicultural/pest control purposes, or firefighting. Depending on wind conditions, altitude, and spray density, each tank, holding 500 gallons of fluid, can cover a square mile of ground. Filled with water, against vampires, the typical spray does 6d6 HP to any vampire caught in the downpour.

n)ECM/Jammer Pods---These pylon-mounted pods can be used to jam enemy radar and radio, or can be used to jam missile guidance systems. Jamming pods affect a 3 mile radius and are 70% effective at jamming radar and radio. Radar-guided weapons are -6 to strike the jammer-protected aircraft. Bonuses from multiple jamming pods are NOT cumulative.

5)Flare/Chaff Launchers(2)--The Caribou II mounts two flare/chaff countermeasure launchers just behind the wing-roots.
Range: Close Defense
Damage: None; similar to Triax-style chaff
01-50 Enemy Missile or volley detonates in chaff and threat is neutralized
51-75 Missile/Volley diverts and may pursue/lock on to other targets
76-00 No Effect! Missile(s) still on target!
Will also temporarily blind and impede flying monsters who fly into it.
Reduce APMs/combat bonuses/ speed by half for 1d4 melees
Payload: 12 per launcher(24 total)

Options:
The following are a few of the more common options available from Paladin Steel:

*Dorsal Turret---A small weapons turret can be added to the Caribou II, just aft of the cockpit, with 360-degree rotatin, and 60-degree elevation. The turret can hold any light energy cannon or railgun(or two).
MDC of Turret: 45
Cost: 6,000 credits for installation; weapon(s) cost extra.

*Enhanced Radar---A radome can be added, appearing as a bulbous housing at the T-Junction of the tail, facing forward. The enhanced air search radar has a range of 100 miles, and can track/ID up to 96 targets simultaneously.
Cost: 20,000 credits

*EMP Shielding---Extensive use of non-conductive materials, shock barriers, capacitator-sponges, redundant systems, and energy-disipation technology protects the aircraft from the damaging effects of electro-magnetic pulse, Triax Lightning Cannon, and other anti-electronics directed energy weaponry.
Cost: 500,000 credits

*Extra Armor---Adding additional armor to aircraft is difficult, due to the problems of balancing weight and performance, but it is possible. PS engineers can use advanced megadamage plastics, polymer fabrics, and composites to add extra protection to airframes.
*Light----Adds 10-100 MDC main body, + 20-800 lbs, without movement penalties
----Cost: 30,000 credits per 10 MDC
*Medium---Adds 110-200 MDC main body, +1,000-2,000lbs, but with a reduction in top speed of 15%
----Cost: 32,000 credits per 10 MDC
*Heavy----Adds 210-360 MDC main body, +3,000-6,000 lbs, but with a reduction in top speed of 25%, and -5% to Piloting skill because of the added encumberance.
----Cost: 36,000 credits per 10 MDC


Variants:
*DH-Bomber Configuration---This configuration does away with any cargo/passenger-carrying capability, gutting the cargo compartment, removing the rear cargo doors and ramp, and installing a bomb bay with rotating weapons drum in their place. The nose section also features a bomb-sighting sensor window.
Modifications:
a)Rotary Bomb Bay, holding 10 LRMs, 20 MRMs, 40 SRMs, or 80 mini-missiles. Or can carry bombs; 20 heavy bombs(equivalent to LRM warheads, but double the blast radius), 30 medium bombs, 50 light bombs, or 120 mini-munitions. Can also use ‘smart’ TV/Laser-guided bombs(as described in Rifts: Mercenaries, pg. 115)
Cost: +1.8 million credits.

*DH-Coastal Patrol Craft Configuration “A”---Originally intended for SAR(Search and Rescue) duties, this variant is also an excellent ASW and maritime strike aircraft.
Modifications:
a) Nose-Mounted Forward Looking Infrared(FLIR) and Thermo-Imaging sensors. 2,000 ft range
b) Nose Mounted Searchlight----1,000 ft range
c)Retractable Magnetic Anomaly Detector(MAD) Tail Boom---Extends out 12 ft from the tail of the aircraft, adn is used to detect and track surface and submarine vessels by their magnetic field. Less effective at detecting non-metallic vessels and organics. Range: 5 miles, and has a 70% chance of detecting submerged vessels( -20% for non-metallic artificial objects, and no chance of detecting organics).
d) Cargo Bay can be used to stern-launch air-dropped torpedoes(up to 4 heavy torpedoes can be carried, 6 MRTs, or 8 SRTs), but is more commonly fitted to airdrop inflatable raft pods, or parachute-arrested dinghies.
e) Wing Racks are typically dedicated to carrying torpedoes or anti-ship missiles.
f) Retractable Ventral Radome---A recessed radome can be extended from the underside of the aircraft, to deploy a powerful ground/search radar, with look-down capabilities and ground-clutter-filtering software routines. Perfect for deetcting ships and sea-skimming objects. Range: 50 miles.
g)Emergency Flotation Units(can keep the aircraft afloat for 2d4x10 hours)
Cost: +1.1 million credits.

*DH-Coastal Patrol Craft Configuration “B”---The “B” configuration has all the features of the “A” listed above, but sacrifices cargo and passenger capability in favor of a bomber-style dedicated weapons bay. The “B” is a dedicated ASW platform and maritime strike platform.
Modifications:
a) Dunking Sonar---The belly or a side hatch winch assembly can be used to deploy a dunking sonar head. To deploy this system, the VTOL must hover, as motionless as possible, above the surface of the water while taking readings from the lowered array. This sonar system can be considered to have an effectuve range of 50 miles.
b) Weapons Bay---The dedicated weapons bay can hold up to 8 heavy torepdoes, 10 medium torpedoes, 20 short range torpedoes, or 40 mini-torpedoes.
c)Sonubouy Bay---Sonubouys are small, expendable sensors deployed by air vehicles to set up temporary sensor nets. The typical sonubouy resembles a cylinder 2-5 ft long, made of light plastics, that when deployed, floats upright while deploying an acoustic sensor and line from its lower end. The sonubouy can either use passive detection, or can use an active sonar pinger, to detect submerged targets. Sonubouys are battery powered, and typically have an active life of an hour or so, but typically drift out of position in 10-20 minutes, depending on currents, conditions, and drop pattern.
They report their information via a radio uplink(standard range 5-10 miles), and can report a sonar/accoustic contact, its strength, estimated range and heading(using a built-in compass to determine direction), and estimated speed. Consider the sonubouy to have a sonar range of 5 miles
Sonubouys are typically laid in a pattern, with multiple sonubouys allowing for the triangulation of a target. They are cheap, disposable, and virtually indetectable(their small size and plastic construction negate most forms of detection), making them extremely difficult to avoid and actively counteract. However, sonubouys are not as accurate as more sophisticated systems(hence, its a good idea to deploy many of them), and they are affected by currents, which can quickly break up a laid pattern. Recommended proccedure when using sonubouys is to lay them across the projected path of the target, or to lay them upstream/current of the target’s suspected location, so the pattern moves with the current. Sonubouys are best used when one is aware that something is there, but not exactly where it is; a pattern of sonubouys can help triangulate a target for more accurate firing solutions and weapons targetting(give guided weapons a +1 to strike an underwater target if using information patched in from a sonubouy network, or give sonar operators a +15% to detection and location rolls).
Once their batteries have given out, sonubouys self-destruct---a plug in the floatation chamber dissolves, and the whole apparatus sinks to the bottom, its electronics ruined.
PS’ DiFAR SSQ-400 series Sonubouys cost 100 credits apiece
Payload: The Caribou II “B” can hold and deploy up to 50 sonubouys

Cost: +2 million credits.

[taalismn]

Awesome new material Taalismn! Are we going to see a construction platform for land?

Pre-Fab bases? Megadamage modular bungalow-bunkers? Possibly...

[Aramanthus]

Very nice transports! Awesome! We'll take a few of them from Paladin Steel. And we'll pay for every option too. What about mobile bunkers? We can always use those. I'm sure other would like that too. We would be very interested in getting ahold of some prefab MDC buildings too.

[Aramanthus]

It'd be a lot of fun to go thru their main display floor with all of their nifty toys!

[bigbobsr6000]

Excellant stuff as always!!!

[abtex]

Have read the DH Caribou II have not read the Herc yet. But sure it just as good or better.

[taalismn]

Have read the DH Caribou II have not read the Herc yet. But sure it just as good or better.

It gets the job done...

[taalismn]

It'd be a lot of fun to go thru their main display floor with all of their nifty toys!

Shall we break out the donkey engine(s) for your shopping cart(s) then?

[taalismn]

Very nice transports although Tilt-A-Whirl always makes me think of the ride I would go on down the shore. Big shells that you would sit in and the force of the ride could whip that sucker around something fierce if you sat in it JUST right.

Hmmmmm.....suggests an exotic TW travel mechanism...

[taalismn]

May as well paste this here, because PS is allied with FA and may be acting as sales agent for these aircraft in North America

Bristol Beaufighter X
(aka ‘Flying Pig’, ‘Flying Dwarf’, ‘Bulldog’)

‘The Beau’s a pugnacious little bastard on looks alone...the engine nacelles are nearly as thick as the fuselage, the nose is a stub pug...or a fat schnooze in the nightfighter models. It’s squat, it’s ugly, and it can spit nails....no wonder the English like ‘em.”
-----Captain Walter M’Ding, Mission MIlitary Attache, Vermont Free State Embassy, Eternal City(Somerset), Great Britain

“The Invisibility feature looks great on paper, but using it’s a whole different matter....Remember, when it’s engaged, you can’t take any sort of action that might be deemed offensive in nature...that means no active pinging of targets with live sensors, no openning fire, not even using a radio until you’re ready to drop cloak and open up on the objective....Sounds simple? Not in the field....You open fire early, you blow the whole element of surprise...You travelling in formation with the rest of a squadron? Better know where your wingmate is and that he doesn’t suddenly cut speed or drift in front of you because you’ll never see him until one or both of you is dead...Furthermore, some of the Formorians and Splugorth are damn good at listening and figuring out where an invisible attacker is coming from, and some of the magically inclined have mage-detectors that can pick up a cloaked aircraft in advance. Rumor has it, there are sci-tech mages who are figuring out ways around the limitations, like esper-com systems and remote viewing, but don’t count on anything coming out soon.
Don’t get me wrong...the Invis-generator’s on a first rate fighting machine, but a lot of new pilots go for the geegaws first and try to substitute them for common sense and good piloting’.....and as any prop-jockey can tell you, that’s the sort of assumption the fortunes of war don’t smile on with any reliability...”
----Sir Raleigh of New Barley Cross, Head of Aviation

A twin-engine long-range nightfighter and anti-shipping strike fighter developed out of desperate necessity at the beginning of Britain’s involvement in World War Two, the Bristrol Beaufighter resembles a fatter, stubbier Mosquito, but is much slower, with shorter range, but heavier armament. The Beaufighter was the work of desperate and practical improvization, in the time of the pre-WW2 Munich crisis, by Bristol Aircraft to meet an RAF requirement to produce a twin engined multi-role fighter that could match the known German superiority in heavy fighters. By utilizing airframe components from an earlier, and then still in-production light bomber series, Bristol was able to quickly design, prototype, produce, and start mass-producing a robust, pugnacious-looking brute of an aircraft, a dray-house to the later thoroughbred that was the Mosquito. While the Mosquito is best known as a tactical bomber and recon aircraft, the Beaufighter proved itself a menace to German and Italian shipping, and night bomber raids.
The Beaufighter is hardly a beautiful design; sharing the same general plan configuration as the Mosquito(though the Beau’ is actually derived from the earlier and only partially successful Beaufort torpedo bomber, the Beaufighter appears to condense those features, with a fat thick main fuselage, engine nacelles almost as wide as the fuselage, with gaping overhead air intakes, prop spinners actually protruding ahead of the nose, and thick, stubby wings. Later nightfighter versions added a stubby ‘thimble’ nose for airborne target location radar sets. Yet, despite its appearance, the Beaufighter proved a versatile and reliable aircraft, a two-engined faster fighter with endurance that was available just as it was needed most, though its exploits went largely unsung compared to the missions of aircraft like the Mosquito, Lancaster, Hurricane, and Typhoon.
The Beaufighter was impressively armed; four heavy aviation cannon, a half-dozen lighter rapid-fire guns, internally-carried bombs or torpedoes, underwing ordnance, and a single dorsal gun mount to cover its rear. The Beaufighter also carried a fairly substantial weight of protective armor, the better to protect its crew as they closed in and slugged away at a bomber or flak-armed naval auxiliary. As a two-engined aircraft, it was fast, and being a large aircraft, had the internal fuel tankage for long patrols. Another plus was its carrying of a second crewman, who served as an observer and radio(later radar) operator when not manning the rear gun(especially important during night operations). All these desin aspects have been preserved in the post-Rifts version.
Farnborough Avionics has kept to this successful formula, updating the design with more advanced TW powerplants,superior megadamage materials, modern sensor systems, and more powerful modern weapons. The throw-weight of ordnance has only been increased, with the improvements in performance.
Among the TW enhancements built into this design is a simple stealth system, not meant so much to make the Beaufighter into a dedicated stealth aircraft as to allow the aircraft to close with its intended victims.
The powerplant is a self-recharging hybrid PPE-electric ‘powerstone’ powerplant developed with Farnborough ally Paladin Steel’s help. This system holds a basic power charge that regenerates slowly from a crystal-matrix internal dynamo, but can also be ‘quick charged’ by manual infusion of PPE. When on a ley-line, the pure TW-powerplant takes over and the aircraft can fly effectively effortlessly as long as it remains on a leyline. While in this ‘cruise’ mode, surplus PPE is diverted to the batteries, accelerating the recharge rate.
The new Beaufighter has proven a hit with British kingdoms looking to build themselves air power, and the aircraft is becoming quite popular, several squadrons having already been sold. Most notably, a squadron of eight Beaufighters has been purchased and deployed by a group calling itself the Royal Atlantean Navy, commanded by a figure identifying himself only as “King Kullen”. This band of rievers is suspected to operate from bases in Southern England, possibly one of the Channel Isles, and strikes primarily at Splurgorth and Horune ships entering European waters. These Beaufighters have been modified with advanced nose-mounted radar and sensors, and seem to enjoy steady munitions supplies(including high-tech missiles), leading to the rumor that the RAN may have Triax or Naruni connections and/or financial/technical support.

Type: Beaufighter X(*)
Class:Two Seat Night and Long Range(Anti-Shipping Strike) Fighter
Crew: Two
MDC/Armor by Location
Main Body 370
Reinforced Crew Compartment 80
Dorsal Gun Mount 30
Engines(2) 70 each
Wings(2) 100 each
Tail 120
Height: 15 ft, 10 in.
Width/Wingspan:57 ft, 10 in.
Length:41 ft, 8 in.
Weight:14,600 lbs empty/unloaded, 21,000 lbs fully loaded
Cargo:Enough space in cockpit for several survival packs and sidearms
Powerplant: Liquid-fuelled or TW-Electric Hybrid
Speed: 275 MPH at 15,000 ft
333 MPH at 15, 600 ft
Max. Ceiling Altitude: 26,500 ft
Range: (Liquid Fuelled)1,460 miles(1,810 miles w/ wing guns replaced by auxiliary fuel tanks)
TW-Electric Hybrid has 2,000 miles unassisted, effectively indefinitely on ley-lines.
Market Cost: 10 million for liquid-fueled version, 13 million credits for TW powered version, 15 million for Stealthed versions
Systems/Features:
Radio: 200 mile range
Radar----30 mile range
Ejection Seat

Weapons Systems:
1) 20 mm Cannon(4, nose-mounted)---In place of the original 20mm cannons, the Beaufighter X(*) typically carries a set of heavy boosted-range TW P-Beam Cannons.
Range: 2,800 ft(double on ley lines)
Damage: 1d4x10 MD per blast; all four cannons firing simultaneously do 4d4x10 MD per burst!
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited; the arming spells must be re-primed and recharged every four weeks.

Alternative Fiiting: Can be fitted with standard 20-mm autocannons
Range: 4,000 ft
Damage:(20mm) 1d4 MD single shot
4d6 MD per 5 rd burst
1d4x10+4 MD per 10 rd burst
Rate of Fire: Standard
Payload: 120 rds per cannon

2)Wing-Mounted .303 Machine Guns(TW TK Cannon)(6)----In place of the original light machine guins, the Beaufighter X(*) uses a North American-developed TK machine gun design that is now beginning to be manufactured in Europe.
Range: 4,000 ft(double on ley lines)
Damage: 6d6 MD burst per gun.
A full salvo from all six guns, firing at once, does 3d6x10+20 MD!
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited; the arming spells must be re-primed and recharged every four weeks.

3)1 Dorsal Mount .303 Machine Gun(TW TK Cannon)(1)----The single TK gun in the rear position is meant to cover the aircraft’s tail in air combat(especially useful in the post-Rifts skies). It is identical to the wing-mounted weapons, but has a 45-degree arc of fire. It is manned by the bombardier/sensor officer.
Range: 4,000 ft(double on ley lines)
Damage: 6d6 MD burst per gun.
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited; the arming spells must be re-primed and recharged every four weeks.

4)Underfuselage Ordnance---The Beaufighter has a single under-fuselage cradle/sling hardpoint that can carry a large torpedo or heavy bomb.
1 1,650 lb bomb(1d6x100 MD to 75 ft blast radius)
OR 1 2,130 lb torpedo

*250-lb Bomb----2d4x10 MD to 50 ft blast radius
*500-lb Bomb----4d4x10 MD to 60 ft blast radius
*1,000-lb Bomb----1d4x100 MD to 70 ft blast radius
*2,000-lb Bomb----2d4x100 MD to 80 ft blast radius

5)Wing-Mounted Weapons Stations(1-4)---Depending on the type of weaponry carried, the Beaufighter has 1-4 underwing hardpoints under each wing.
Payload: 8 90 lb Rockets* OR 2 250 lb bombs OR 2 Short Range Torpedoes

*Because of the difficulty of manufacturing/obtaining high-tech missiles in Rifts Britain, Farnborough Avionics produces simple unguided missiles(equiv. to SRMs, but with a straight roll to strike) and their own TW Rockets( 5 mile range, and does 2d4x10 MD to 30 ft blast radius)

TW Features:
*Ley Line Flier---Can fly effectively indefinitely on a ley line.
*Levitation----A low-powered Levitation spell allows the aircraft to make STOL takeoffs and landings, especially important when using unimproved fields or when heavily laden. Can also be used by ground crews to taxi and move landed aircraft for servicing and repair. 30 minutes per 5 PPE.
*Forcefield---Provides 50 MDC per 10 PPE/20 ISP pumped into the system; lasts 10 minutes per 10 PPE/20 ISP.

*Mystical Stealth System----Renders the aircraft silent and invisible, even during the day. Great for evading detection, surveillance, and tailing, but the moment the aircraft takes any sort of aggressive manuever, the stealth drops and the aircraft can be readily detected. Costs 20 PPE per 3 minutes of activation. About 30% of Beaufighters are fitted with the Stealth system.

*NIghtcloak System(Fitted to Night-Fighter variants)---Effective only at night, this system renders the aircraft virtuallly invisible in darkness; enemies are -6 to strike, -4 to dodge. Costs 10 PPE per 30 minutes.

[taalismn]

Just consolidating PS products...

Another 'remade' vintage aircraft...

Paladin Steel ‘Harpoon’ Maritime Patrol Bomber
“Attacking a devil kraken with airdropped torpedoes and depth charges is kinda like throwing spitballs at a raging bull...But if we hadn’t bought these two patrol bombers, that monster would have eaten all of our fishing fleet...Having them as spotters bought enough time for the rest of the crews to scattle ashore, though not before the thing got Winston and the patrol boat...
The boys upstairs now tell us the thing’s lurking offshore, waiting for us to get forgetful and come back out, so’s it can eat the rest of the fleet....The flyboys want to bomb up and try to see if they can score a crit on the beast, so’s we can get back out and maybe save this season with the black tuna run, but I tell’em to save their gas and ammo and wait for the gov upriver to come down with some HEAVY ordnance and tacnuke the thing for certain.”
---Mayor Gol Rollo, Essexville-on-the-Connicut, Greater New England.

Paladin Steel has placed a strong emphasis on naval patrol aircraft, seeing as Greater New England’s long coastline is particularly vulnerable to Splugorth Slaver attacks and sea monsters.
PS has taken a ‘high-low’ approach for vehicle construction, crafting advanced, sophisticated combat craft such as its GMR gravity-resist craft for the elite units of the GNE military, while at the same time also churning out hundreds of relatively inexpensive, simple, easily modified, and relatively low-tech aircraft and vehicles for equipping regional militias, the protectors of new territories, and mercenary ‘Irregular’ units, as well as export sales.
The ‘Hudson Harpoon’ is one such design...actually a post-Rifts revamping of an ancient pre-Rifts design, the Lockheed Ventura(itself a military version of that company’s Lodestar airfreighter, and a scale-up of the smaller Hudson, part of a line of similar aircraft going back through Amelia Earheart’s Electra). A simple, twin-engined prop-propelled aircraft, the Harpoon may be slow and primitive compared to more advanced hovercrafts and power armors, but upgraded as Paladin Steel has done, the design can pack a considerable punch, at a price easily afforded by many smaller kingdoms and independent communities. To economize, the PV-200 is offered with a choice of powerplants, including liquid-fuel, Techno-Wizard Electric, and Nuclear Fusion. A variety of armament packages also allows the aircraft to be customized further. Paladin Steel has modified the design for STOL operations off rough and unimproved(unpaved) airfields with a redesigned wing and landing gear. The propellors have been improved with variable-pitch types for better performance at altitude and in take-off/landing operations. The original ‘glass nose’ with exposed bombardier position has been replaced by a solid nose with fitted guns, the bombing optics now conisting of a smaller nose radome, and smaller belly optical turret feeding targetting data to a desk screen just behind the pilots.
The Hudson Harpoon is manufactured at both the Greater New England and Paladin Steel West(New Seattle) works. Paladin Steel has also sold the license for manufacture to the New Roman Republic, though only a handful of Novo Aeralita-produced models have appeared yet with the NRR coastal patrol command, fitted with slightly different avionics and weaponry.
Type: PS(W)-PV-200
Class: Coastal Patrol Light Bomber
Date of Introduction: PA
Crew: 4(pilot, co-pilot, navigator/bombardier, communications tech/gunner, and gunner)+1 passenger/observer
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 200
Reinforced Crew Compartment 80
Wings(2) 100 each
Engines(2) 110 each
Rear Dorsal Gun Turret 70
Ventral Gun Position 60

Height: 11 ft 10 in.
Width/Beam: 65 ft 6 in.
Length: 51 ft 8 in.
Weight: 20,000 lbs empty, 34,000 lbs fully loaded
Cargo: Up to 400 lbs of gear(survival packs, sidearms, liferaft, and a few small possessions) in cabin.
If not carrying bay ordnance, can carry 3,900 lbs of cargo
Powerplant: Liquid Fuel(1,650 mile maximum range---drop tanks can extend this by 20%), TW Electric, or Nuclear Fusion w/ 10 year energy life
Speed: 330 MPH(TW-powered models can hit 480 MPH on a ley line), 26,300 ft maximum altitude
Market Cost: 800,000 credits for standard liquid-fuelled model, 4.5 million for TW Electric, 4 million for nuclear
Systems of Note:
Standard Systems, plus:

*Laser Bombing Optics---Combination of ‘fuzzy logic’ stabilization algorithms, laser triangulation, and radar rangefinding, gives a +1 to strike with gravity-bombs.

Weapons Systems:
1)Nose-Mount Cannon(5, 2x1, 3x1)---The Harpoon mounts two nose weapons positions; a pair of cannon in the nose tip, and a three gun pack just below the nose in a ‘chin’ position. Both positions can mount either the same type of weapons or different types. The nose guns are fired by either the pilot or the co-pilot.
a) Heavy Machinegun---.50 caliber machine guns firing ramjet rounds
Range: 5,000 ft
Damage: 1d4 MD single rd, 5d6 MD for 40 rd burst
Rate of Fire: Burst firing only, EGCHH
Payload: 1,000 rds per gun
b) Rail Gun--More powerful, if shorter ranged, electromagnetic guns
Range: 4,000 ft
Damage: 1d4 MD single rd, 4d6 MD per 20 rd burst
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: 2,000 rds per gun
c) Laser---Pulse Lasers
Range: 4,000 ft
Damage: 3d6 MD single shot, 6d6 MD double shot
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: Liquid Fuel and electric-powered models have batteries with 150 shots per cannon, Nuclear-powered models are effectively unlimited(powerlinked to powerplant)
d) TW TK Machine Cannon
Range: 4,000 ft(double on ley lines)
Damage: 2d4 MD single shot, 3d6 MD short(5 shot) burst, 5d6 MD long (10 shot) burst, 2d6x10 MD full melee (50 shot) burst
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited; powering spells must be re-cast every six months. 200 shot ‘back-up’ PPE clip

2) Turret-Mount Cannon(2)----Mounted back of the wings and dorsally, this turret houses two weapons identical to those in the nose. The turret has a full 360-degree rotation, and the guns have 80 degree elevation.

3) Ventral Blister-Mount Cannon(2)---Used to protect the vulnerable rear ventral arc of the aircraft, these twin weapons, manned by a gunner laying prone in the ventral ‘tray’ position, can also be used to attack ground targets in passing. Weapons have a limited 60 degree arc of fire(30 degrees side to side) and 45 degree depression. The two mounted weapons are identical to those in the nose and turret positions.

4) Weapons Bay---Torpedos and other ordnance have become more compact and effective since the days of the original PV-2, so the modern PV-200 can carry rather more in the way of destructive firepower. The ventral bomb bay can accomodate the following:
a) Bombs---Can carry up to 10 250 lb bombs(2d6x10 +10 MD, 16 ft blast radius) OR 6 500-lb bombs(4d4x10 MD, 50 ft blast radius)
b) Torpedoes---4 Light Torpedos, OR 2 Medium Torpedos, Or 1 Heavy Torpedo
c) Mines---Though relativey useless against high-tech opponents like the Coalition and Kittani who regularly sweep their waters for mines, air-dropped mines can still prove effective against opponents like pirates, low-tech kingdoms, and monsters...either defensively laid in an opponet’s projected path, or to obstruct waterways. The PV-200 can carry 4 heavy mines equivalent to depth charges
d) Depth Charges---Can carry up to 6 500-lb depth charges.

5) Underwing Hardpoints(8-10)---Liquid-Fuelled models have two plumbed hardpoints for carrying 150-gallon droptanks. TW Electric and Nuclear-powered models have these hardpoints converted to regular ordnance hardpoints, increasing their potential weaponry capacity.

The outermost 8 hardpoints can carry the following:
a) Mini-Missiles---1 per hardpoint
b) Bombs---1 90-lb bomb per hardpoint(equivalent to mini-missile warheads, but DOUBLE the blast radius)
If not necessary for carrying droptanks, the two innermost hardpoints can carry the following:
a)Mini-Missiles---10 shot pod
b)Short Range Missile--1 per hardpoint
c) Bombs---1 250 lb bomb(2d6x10 +10 MD, 16 ft blast radius) per hardpoint
d) Cannon Pod----20mm electric cannon pod
Range: 4,000 ft
Damage:(20mm) 1d4 MD single shot
4d6 MD per 5 rd burst
1d4x10+4 MD per 10 rd burst
Rate of Fire: Standard
Payload: 150 rds


Variants:
*PC-201---The transport version, stripped of all but two nose cannons and the turret and fitted for passenger or cargo transport. Weighs 20% less, and can hit speeds of 350 MPH, with an effective range of 1,700 miles for the standard avgas-fuelled versions, and can carry either 12 people(in addition to a 3 man crew) or 4,000 lbs of cargo. Costs 40% less than the military model

[taalismn]

Paladin Steel Cheyenne III Attack Helicopter

“I’ve seen smaller piston-powered BOMBERS than the Cheyenne...hulking helicopter it is...but I’ve seen fewer craft that have smoother handling....Thing handles like a fighter at lower speeds....And you’re going to need that handling if you get jumped by gargoyles or SAMAS...And believe me, those guys take EVERY opportunity to prove they’re better than an eggbeater...Well, if you know what you’re doing, you can show them what happens to an egg when it gets too close to the ‘beater.”
-----Jerio “Gyroman” Pulsycwczki, Techno-Wizard Aviator, Tennyson’s Tornadoes Mercenary Air Support.

“Careful with the belly turret...that effectively unlimited arc of movement may allow you to shoot behind you, but some of the underwing ordnance hangs below the weapon’s deadzone...I’ve already heard of at leaast two Chens that shot themselves down because some overzealous, or just plain stupidly forgetful, gunner tried to track a target laterally, and chewed off his ship’s own wing with the auto-thirty. Fortunately, Paladin Steel has a nice software patch available that allows a crew to pre-check any obstructions to field-of-fire, and auto-tag what NOT to shoot off before going into action....Now people gotta remember to engage it...and I can be sure that some jerk’s going to forget THAT!”
----Captain Larry Bosno, 17th (“Iron Butterflies”) VTOL Support Squadron(New Springfield), Greater New England Air National Guard.

Though Paladin Steel already had an excellent conventional attack helicopter in its heavily-armed Mohawk, the company saw that there was still room in its production capabilities and marketing for additional rotocraft designs(even as its Aerospace Division was embracing emerging GMR technology). The loss of Iron Heart Armaments effectively ended the production and sale of the very popular Iron Eagle attack helicopter(CS-supervised NG production of a knockoff using IHA’s captured facilities didn’t fare well) openned up a gap in the market that PS saw an opportunity to fill.
Paladin Steel, with the assistance of expatriate IHA employees, elected to resurrect a pre-Rifts design, the Lockheed Cheyenne attack helicopter, an ambitious aircraft that predated the highly successful Apache AH-64, to update. Though a good design, the Cheyenne was killed by a combination of expensive technical teething problems and interservice rivalries, and the design went down in history as a military-industrial boondoogle. Paladin Steel’s techno-archaeology teams were able to secure good technical data on the design and saw promise in it, if it could be modified with modern materials and technology. In short order, they had a design worked up, and prototypes produced. The new PS Cheyenne III was soon rolling out of a Burlington hangar for flight- and weapons-testing.
The Cheyenne III bears a strong resemblance to its ancestor in the forward fuselage, but the tail, with its vulnerable twin rotors, has been substantially modified into a dual enclosed fenestron and ducted fan configuration. Two high-efficiency flex-fuel turbine engines have been installed for power redundancy(or a compact micro-fusion powerplanet). The fuselage has been armored in ultra-tough lightweight megadamage composites, with kinetic-resistant embedded mesh. Avionics have been upgraded to include fly-by-wire systems, autostabilization, a hub-mast-mounted radome/sensor cap, and HUD sensor systems. Two anti-missile flare/chaff countermeasure systems have been added to the craft, and the Cheyenne III can pylon-mount additional jamming hardware pods.
The Cheyenne III is larger and longer than the Iron Eagle, and slower as well, but it is also more agile in air combat, and more heavily armed. Extensive use of Paladin Steel megadamage composites and ceramics have kept the aircraft’s weight and mass down, allowing for better fuel efficiency and lighter handling for such a large rotocraft. Its composite armor has proven especially resistant to impact damage, even though overall damage ratings are less than the Iron Eagle’s(though the Cheyenne III still sports better protection to its Coalition equivalents). In its conventional liquid-fueled models, the Cheyenne III’s range is excellent, giving the helicopter a superb radius of action.
Like its ancestor, the Cheyenne III has proven capable in the gunship role, but its unique design also makes it a good pinpoint dive bomber, using its ducted tailfan as an airbrake, to deliver conventional bombs on sharp-angled penetrating drop-approaches. While this tactic does allow for pinpoint accuracy attacks, with the added benefit of extra damage from the imparted kinetic energy from the dive speed, the tactic is best used in the absence of effective air defense, as the close approach leaves the divebomber vulnerable to enemy fire in the seconds before and just after bomb release. Still, dive bombing has proven effective against fortified positions such as bunkers, urban redoubts, bridges, and firing pits/silos.
Since its introduction, the Cheyenne III has done very well in sales, especially for Coalition-leery nation-states and communities nervous after the fall of Tolkeen. Mercenary units hurting for air support after the annexation of New Kenora and Iron Heart Armaments have also been buying up the Cheyenne III in numbers, seeking to bolster their dwindling mumbers of Iron Eagles(as combat attrition and a lack of spare parts begins to be felt). Though the Greater New England military has officially adopted the Mohawk as its rotorcraft of choice, they have acquired a few Cheyenne IIIs for their own purposes, and the GNE Air National Guard has several dozen in its reserve air wings. Already, Paladin Steel has begun development of several variants, including a navalized version, and a faster ‘x-wing’ verion is already in the advanced field testing stage.
Type: PS-AH-563
Class: Attack Helicopter
Crew: 2(pilot and weapons officer)
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 280
Reinforced Crew Compartment 100
Nose Turret 40
Belly Turret 50
Pylon Wings(2) 50 each
Rotors 80(20 each blade)
Tail 120
Height: 14 ft
Width: 14 ft. 50 ft rotor diameter
Length: 60 ft
Weight: 8 tons fully loaded/fuelled, 5.6 tons empty
Cargo: Small space behind seats for survival packs and sidearms
Powerplant: Liquid Fuel w/ 890 mile range or Nuclear w/ 12 year energy life
Speed: (Flying) Hover to 280 MPH, 26,000 ft altitude

Market Cost: 1.4 million credits for liquid-fuelled version, 23 million credits for the nuclear
Systems of Note:
Standard Power Armor Systems, plus:

*Ejection Seats---Facilitates crew escape in event if an emergency bailout situation

*Spotlight: 800 ft

*Radio w/ signal scrambler: 500 mile long range, 5 mile short range.

*External Loudspeaker: 80 decibels

*Laser Targetting---Laser range finders on the turret-mounted weapons, and added gyrostabilization, gives the weapons a +2 to strike.

*EM Alert System---Sounds an alert if the aircraft is detected/scanned by radar, and can be set to trigger the countermeasure launchers if a radar ‘lock-on’ is detected.

*ECCM system: A semi-automatic system that uses electronic encryption and frequency jumping to (attempt to) negate jamming systems. The system has a 25% chance of negating radar or communications jamming (non-magical) on its own, or a +5% if the pilot has a Read Sensory Instruments or Radio: Scramblers skill and devotes a full melee to operating the system(no other attacks/actions are possible).
Having an Electronic warfare Skill gains a +15% bonus to operating this system.
Note that this only applies to received communications (the system filters them out from the jamming clutter) and sensory data received by that unit alone (other units cannot make use of it, unless they have an unaffected datalink/info-share with the ECCM equipped unit. Magic/psychic jamming is NOT affected by this system.

*Composite Armor---The megadamage composite fiber armor of the Cheyenne III is of interest in that it reduces damage by projectile weapon strikes(autocannon, rila guns, fragmentation missiles, arrows, spears) by 20%.

*Advanced Fly-By-Wire Pilot Assist System---Advanced flight controls give the pilot a +5% to piloting skill, and a +2 to dodge with the helicopter.

Weapons Systems:
1) 30mm Autocannon Belly Turret---Originally, PS meant to arm the Cheyenne III with a copy of the Iron Eagle’s 30mm autocannon, but success with 30mm-format power armor weapons led to PS installing a superior PS-LRFC-B30D, with a more powerful propellant cartridge, better recoil control, and better accuracy. The ventral weapons turret has a full 360-degree arc of fire, and 35 degree depression. It si remotely operated by the weapons officer.
Range: 6,500 ft
Damage:4d6 MD single rd, 1d6x10 MD two rd burst
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: 220 rounds

2) Nose Mounted Turret---The nose sports a small turret underneath the nose sensor dome. Paladin Steel, in a nod to its modularity philosophy, has made this weapons position similiarly modular, allowing a variety of weapons to be fitted. Turret has a 120-degree arc of fire, 45-degree depressin/elevation, and can be controlled by either the pilot or the weapons officer.
a) Grenade Launcher
Range: 3,000 ft
Damage: (Fragmentation) 4d6 MD to 12 ft area single rd, 2d6x10 MD to 40 ft area per 10-round burst
(Armor Piercing)1d6x10 to 3 ft area single rd, 3d6x10 MD to 8 ft area per 10-round burst
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload: 200 rds

b) Light Rail Gun
Range: 4,000 ft
Damage: 1d4 MD single rd, 4d6 MD per 20 rd burst(8d6 MD for both guns firing in a dual burst---counts as one attack)
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload:4000 rd drum(200 bursts)

c) Light Pulse Laser
Range: 4,000 ft
Damage: 3d6 MD single shot, 6d6 MD pulse burst
Rate of Fire:EGCHH
Payload: 200 shot battery for conventionally powered models, effectively unlimited for nuclear-powered models

d) Ion Blaster
Range: 3,000 ft
Damage: 4d6 MD per blast, 1d4x10 MD per triple pulse burst
Rate of Fire:EGCHH
Payload:300 shot battery for conventionally powered models, effectively unlimited for nuclear-powered models


3) Wing Hardpoints(6, 3 under each wing)---The teeth of the Cheyenne III lies in its wing-mounted armaments. These weapons are fired by the weapons officer. Fully loaded, the Cheyenne III can outgun an Iron Eagle, though some Coalition attack copters carry heavier weaponry. Each pylon can accommodate ONE of the following:
a) Mini-Missiles--19 shot pod. Cost: 20,000 Credits(Missiles cost extra)
b) Short Range Missiles---6 shot pod
c) Medium Range Missiles---4 shot pod
d) ‘Black Talon’ LAAM Pods---These are light ‘smart’ anti-aircraft missiles with enhanced warheads, similar in concept to the pre-Rifts ‘Stinger’ SAMs.
Range: 3 miles
Damage: 3d4x10 MD to 40 ft blast radius
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1,2,3, or 4(all)
Payload: 6 per pod
Bonus: +5 to strike, and gets TWO attempts to strike the target(agile enough to loop back on a target and try again)
Cost: 60 ,000 credits per launcher, 10,000 credits per missile

e) 20mm Gun Pod---The 20mm Taskin Rifle, mounted in a vehicle pod
Range: 3,000 ft
Damage:(20mm) 1d4 MD single shot
4d6 MD per 5 rd burst
1d4x10+4 MD per 10 rd burst
(Super-HEX) 4d4 MD single shot
1d6x10 MD per 5 rd burst
2d6x10 MD per 10 rd burst
(Wood Rounds) 6d6 SDC single shot (1d4x10 HP to vampires)
2d4x10 SDC MD per 5 rd burst (2d4x10 HP to vampires)
6d6 MD per 10 rd burst (3d6x10 HP to vampires)
(Crowd Control rds)humans and human-sized D-Bees must roll a D20 to maintain their footing (must equal or surpass the attacker's roll to strike...Full rules in TNW p.174)
Rate of Fire: EGCHH
Payload:500 rd magazine
Cost: 20,000 credits

f) PS-XMG Gatling Cannon----A six-barreled gatling cannon, firing a modified WI-23 5.56mm Explosive cartridge. The PS Gatlings trade damage potential per individual round for burst capability and better range using the better cartridge propellants and longer barrels. Mechanical design modeled after the pre-Rifts XM-214 ‘Six-Pak’ Mini-Gun. Excellent range, but low damage, and a tendency to empty the ammo drum, and wear out the barrels, too quickly in heated combat.
For monster hunting, this weapon can also be used to fire silver-plated bullets, each doing HP to vampires and werebeings.
Range: 13,000 ft
Damage:(5.56mm Explosive) 2d4x10 SDC SDC per single shot, 1d6 MD per 10-shot burst, 2d6 MD per 20-shot burst, and 1d6x10 MD per 100-shot burst(counts as TWO attacks),
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: 40,000 rd(400 bursts) drum standard

g)Bombs--Can carry warhead equivalents of missiles, but DOUBLE the respective number, or retain the same number, and DOUBLE the damage. Note: Can be fitted with ‘smart’ guided munitions. ‘Smart’ Bombs are laser or command-guided and hit large stationary targets automatically! Moving vehicles can also be targeted (at +6 to strike).
Note: The Cheyenne III can engage in divebombing maneuvers; doing so means that the aircraft approaches the target in a dive(45-degrees or better), releases its bomb(at 5,000 ft or less distance from the target), and then pulls out. A successful dive-bombing attack requires a Piloting roll at -10%, but the dropped ordnance is +2 to strike, and gets a +2d4 MD for the extra speed assist in penetration.

i))ECM/Radar Jammer Pod---5 mile range. Jams radars and radar targetting systems with 60% effectiveness. Radar-guided weapons are -6 to strike. Note that this affects friendly systems as well unless they are set to specific, per-arranged, non-jammed frequencies(that it may be possible for the enemy to discover). Carrying extra jammer pods does NOT increase the range or effective bonuses of the system, but may provide redundancy and multi-wavelength coverage.
Cost:50,000 credits

j)Sprayer Pod---This liquid storage pod deploys two diffusers from the back to spray chemicals from the back. This is typically used to control agricultural pests(if the infestation is too great, the ‘copter crew typically fires the affected field), crowd control, firefighting, or other vermin management roles.
Range: Depending on wind and altitude, the helicopter 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!”).
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: 100 gallons
Cost: 10,000 credits

4) Flare/Chaff Launchers(2)---Flare and chaff launchers are fairly standard on PS air vehicles as an affordable and easy to implement anti-missile defense. The Cheyenne III carries two just outboard of the engines’ rear exhausts.
Range: Close Defense
Damage: None; similar to Triax-style chaff
01-50 Enemy Missile or volley detonates in chaff and threat is neutralized
51-75 Missile/Volley diverts and may pursue/lock on to other targets
76-00 No Effect! Missile(s) still on target!
Will also temporarily blind and impede flying monsters who fly into it.
Reduce APMs/combat bonuses/ speed by half for 1d4 melees
Payload: 12 per launcher, 24 total

Variants

*PS-AH-563XW ‘X-Wing’---An attempt to create a faster helicopter, created the XW variant to field-test locking x-rotor technology in which the helicopter can lock its specially shaped rotor blades into a stationary x-configuration wingplane, and fly as a regular jet. To met the increased power demands of forward jet flight, the XW mounts an extra engine and jet thrusters, adding an extra 1.8 tons to the overall weight.
Transition takes about 5 seconds to accomplish. Once switched over, the aircraft engages its second engine, and can hit speeds of 420 MPH. In order to switch back to helicopter mode, the aircraft must drop to 250 MPH or less, before re-engaging the rotary hub.
Paladin Steel has produced a few dozen -XWs and has farmed them out to various concerns and affiliated mercenary units for advanced field testing. If approved for large-scale production, the AH-563XW is expected to cost 20% more than the standard production Cheyenne III.

[batlchip]

You know I some times think that you where a mad scientist in another life taalismn.
I'll take 4 of your c-130 II's please and two of your Puff one's too.If I may.Btw ,I don't suppose you have an A-10 design do you?

[Aramanthus]

Cool! More new material! Yes! We'll take the donkey engine for our purchases. And we may need more then the standard amount because our massive purchases from Paladin Steel!

[taalismn]

ZOT/Paladin Steel S-7 ‘FlexPistol’ Multi-Function Projectile Pistol
http://i408.photobucket.com/albums/pp164/taalismn/PSS-11copy_zpsee1ee2c3.jpg

“Egads! This thing can accommodate a 20mm shell? 7.62 NATO standard rounds? Even Triax DU D rounds and Paladin Steel PSX rounds? And you can fit it to fire rifle grenades? Then why the hell do you need any other pistols or rifles!?”
------Anonymous VFS militiaman, on testing the S-7

“Can you lose the gun-metal gray finish and replace it with something else more to my sensibilities? I mean, its all very nice that I don’t have to worry about ammunition, but does it come in something like, say....metallic red and a rattlesnake scale pattern?”
-----Vicky Terrance, ZOT Space Vixen

“Careful when you’re firing anything bigger than .45; just because it’s a pistol doesn’t mean that the recoil’s the same with the bigger rounds. Chamber a 7.62, for instance, and I’d suggest using both hands, otherwise you’re likely to fracture your wrist from the unexpected kickback. With the 20mm it’s even worse; I’d suggest using the rifle-stock that comes with the kit, and bracing yourself against a wall or on the ground.
I’ve also heard rumors that power disruption spells or strong local EM fields can cause the barrel-weave to unlock and loosen, resulting in gas-bleed, reduced performance, or even an exploding barrel...PS assures me that it’s all rumor and the weapons test out in EM fields, but I hear enough that they might not know it all; so be careful where you’re shooting and who’s throwing what back at you.
All in all, be aware that this thing is still an EXPERIMENTAL weapon.....there are likely to be some bugs in it, but since all of you volunteered to test this thing, the boys and girls upstairs expect you to put this thing through its paces and get good data...so be careful, but do your job....the company doesn’t pay dead testers who can’t give concise reports.”
-----”Galaxy Jim” Rugburne, Headhunter and Vermont Free State Militia Weapons Evaluation Range Officer

“DAMN! Why the hell did you do that!? I wanted him alive!!!”
“Oops...I coulda sworn I still had a .22 cartridge in the feeder...”
“BONEHEAD! THAT was a 20MM!!!!”
---Overheard outside the Skull and Bones bar, Queenston Harbor, after the shooting of “Barracuda” Williamson.

“Quick! I need more ammo!”
“What do you need?”
“What you got!”

The S-7 is an exotic new weapon being sponsored by PS for the recently announced contract-bid by The ZOT for a projectile weapon sidearm able to fire a variety of munitions. Given the Megaverse-wide scale of The ZOT’s operations, Paladin Steel sorta figured out from the beginning that a simple retooling of one of their old projectile weapons wasn’t enough; what was needed was something truly radical and universal. They found it in the unlikely team of Bet Tul, a female Cyclops weapons smith(well-known for her customized handguns that she produces outside her work for Paladin Steel’s Advanced Weapons Division), and Silas Remco, a part-time electromagnetics technician and a gadeteer known for his many ‘kitchen helper’ devices. These two stepped forward after an eight-sleepless-nights-and hundred-aspirin brainstorming session that left five PS engineers with splitting headaches and two in comas, and offered a proposal to develop an idea
The S-7 is, from PS’s orthodox point of view, an engineering nightmare that no sane person would contemplate, and was certain that the prototype would fall apart when the thing was tested in demonstration to ZOT representatives(amazingly, it did not). The S-7 looks like a large-barreled Mauser machine-pistol, with a clip-feed forward of the trigger guard. Instead of a simple, single-piece gun barrel, the S-7 uses a ‘chinese finger’ barrel of woven interlocking strips of high-temperature resistant flex-metal, locked together by a variable-diameter electromagnetic micro-forcefield, powered by a small e-clip loaded in the pistol grip. This variable diameter barrel is key to the entire Flexpistol concept....
The S-7 is a ‘brilliant’ weapon, with a built-in micro-AI chip that reads any bullet/round fed into the receiver, determining if it is caseless or not, its size, weight, and firing mechanism. The barrel diameter can then be manipulated to accomodate the round, the reinforcing forcefeild preventing the escape of propellant gases through the weave. Of equal ly flexible design are the ammunition reciever, which can accept any cartridge and magazine size up to assault rifle box clips, the firing mehanism, which can accomodate rim-fire, pin-fire, or even electrically-fired rounds, and the ejection mechanism, which can eject any cartridge that can be fired by the S-7.
With this ‘variable configuration’ system, the S-7 is perhaps one of the most versatile projectile sidearms in the galaxy! It can accomodate any sort of munition from simple SDC cartridges to megadamage exploders, ramjet rounds, caseless rounds, squeezebore fletchettes, drug darts, nonlethal gel slugs, TW bullets, all the way up to 20mm shells; a list of possible muntions just too large to fully catalogue here!
Even more impressive, by adding a stator-ring barrel overlay sleeve(+.5 lbs), the weapon can be quickly modified to fire rail gun rounds. Damage is low compared to other rail weapons, but when ammunition is scarce, it’s nice to know that one can simply grab a rail gun round, jam it in the pistol, and get back in the fight!
And as if that weren’t enough, the micro-forcefield can be tweaked to reinforce the barrel against thermal damage, allowing the weapon to chamber and fire Naruni and Bandito Arms plasma cartridges, making the S-7 a truly universal weapon! (this latter feature is likely to raise some serious negative attention on the part of those two arms companies...fortunately, the feature is a not-very-well-known aspect of a weapon few outside of PS/VFS even know exists...)
But wait! There’s more! The S-7 comes with an extras kit, including an attachable rifle stock, integral laser spotsight, wirecutter, fish-scaler, toothpick, and mini-tool kit!
Of course, the mechanical sophistication that makes this all possible comes with a downside....repairing these things is much more complicated than a simple gunsmith can do, especially when trying to repair the weapon’s barrel or to fix the micro-chip firing system. To make it easier, PS has made the components modular, so all one has to do is snap-out, snap-in the required components, discard/destroy the old ones, and get back into action. The weapon is also rather expensive (and heavy), by terrestrial standards; PS hopes that a contract-bid approval will allow them to tap into Galactic-level mass-production technologies, allowing them to bring the price down.
The S-7 FlexPistol is currently awaiting approval by The ZOT, and only a limited number of terrestrially-manufactured S-7s have been made available Earth-side for testing and demonstration uses.
Weight: 5 lbs
Range: Varies by ammunition type(for rifle rounds, reduce the range by 1/3, due to the shorter barrel length)
(Railgun Mode) 900 ft
Damage: Varies by ammunition type(can use anything up to 20mm)
(Railgun Mode) 1d6 MD
Rate of Fire: Standard
(Railgun Mode) Single Shot
Payload: Varies; can accomodate just about any box-style magazine
(Railgun Mode) 20 rds
The e-clip is good for 1,000 shots before needing replacement; a railgun shot will take 10 ‘regular’ shots of power
Bonuses: +1 to strike from the integral laser spotsight
Special Features:
Integral Laser Spotsight
Digital Ammunition Counter and Stat Reader(displays ammunition size and type in abbreviated letters...may have problems reading special/unknown/TW rounds).
Attachable Rifle-Stock w/ Built-in Storage Compartment
Rifle Grenade Adapter
Silencer Kit(reduce range by HALF when attached)
Mini-compartment in grip holds a toothpick, file, fish-scaler, e-clip powered lighter, nail-clippers/scizzors, and a small comb.
Cost: 48,000 credits (if mass-produced, expect the price to drop by 50%, and by 70% if manufactured offworld by Three-Galaxies-level industrial technology)

Paladin Steel PS-IMD03 ‘Scrapper’ Mass Driver Rifle
(aka ‘Blunderbus’, ‘Bazoo’, ‘Trumpet’, ‘Barker’)

http://i408.photobucket.com/albums/pp164/taalismn/PSblunderbus-43_zps3f5fb6ac.jpg

“When you’re tossing a grenade down the throat of the Trumpet, make sure you got the count correct...you wanna leave plenty of error room if the thing tumbles and falls short of where you were aimin’ for it to be...You don’t get no points for killing yourself with a stupid mistake.”

“Man, I’ve once killed a vampire with a kitchen service ...loaded up the ‘bus with a handful of spoons and forks and gave the sucker a full chestful when she came through the wall...Her last quip about ‘dinner now being served’ got turned around real bad on her when all that silverware skewered her through her shrivelled black heart..Just to be sure, I had a vamp-light bonfire in the fireplace....or rather the fire-pit I dug with an incendiary grenade.”

“With practice, you can stand the Barker up on its buttstock and use it like a mortar...the range doesn’t suck so bad when you can use it to drop grenades on the other side of a wall, or clean off roof tops in an urban combat situation.”

The PS-IMD03, or ‘Blunderbus’, is an attempt to create a multi-munition, man-portable, rail gun or mass driver. grenade launcher Like its nickname namesake, the IMD03 does resemble a large-bore blunderbus(or trumpet) with a wide flaring muzzle, and thick shock-absorbing buttstock. The IMD03 can be either muzzle-loaded, or breech-loaded like a break-open shotgun. A conventional E-clip in the buttstock powers the stator rings.
The IMD03 was designed with the idea of creating a cheaper, more-easily manufactured, version of the S-7 ‘Flex Pistol’. Normally it fires special 45mm grenades or shells for effect, but in theory, however, anything metallic dropped down its large bore, will be thrown out by the magnetic repulsion field. Of course, in practice, the results aren’t nearly as spectacular; lack of spin stabilization and the less-than-optimal aerodynamics of hand grenades, nuts, bolts, and silverware, mean the range and damage spread are pretty awful, compared to weapon-specific munitions. The weapon is also fairly heavy, and the stator-rings draw heavily on the e-clip in the buttstock.
The IMD-03 has met with some limited success,owing mainly to its limited single-shot rate of fire. The weapon does have its appeal to troops who like the idea of being able to scrounge ammunition from the battlefield, so Paladin Steel has offered it as part of its small arms sales catalogue line-up.
Weight: 13 lbs
Range:(IMD03 Grenade) 3,500 ft
(Solid Slug) 4,000 ft
(Hand-Grenade) 300 ft
(Mortar Shell) 1,000 ft
(Scrap) 200 ft
Damage:(IMD03 Grenade)(Fragmentation)4d6 MD to 16 ft blast area
(High Explosive) 6d6 MD to 8 ft blast area
(Solid Slug) 1d4x10 MD to 2 ft blast area
(Hand-Grenade) By munition type
(Mortar Shell)By munition type
(SDC Scrap) 1d6 MD to a 10 ft wide area
(MDC Scrap) 3d6 MD to a 10 ft wide area
Rate of Fire: Single shot
Payload: Single shot, hand-loaded. Standard E-clip has enough power for 15 shots, long e-clip for 21 shots
Cost: 28,000 credits

Options:
The Scrapper has the option of firing 150 mm mortar bombs....These were developed by a PS engineer who was browsing the historical archives and found reference to the pre-Rifts German army converting 37mm anti-tank guns to firing large externally mounted bombs, like oversized rifle grenades, to increase their versatility. The range is pathetic compared to modern mini-missiles and other heavy weapons, and the bombs large and cumbersome to carry as a regular weapons system, but PS has been experimenting, in a limited scale, with a similar idea, to offer customers more options. The bomb has been produced and offered for use and sale to mercenaries and security forces alike, looking to bolster their firepower.
The IMD03 version works like an EM-catapulted RPG; the user sticks the tail unit of the folding-finned bomb down the muzzle of the Scrapper, pulls an arming pin from the bomb, aims, and shoots. Once clear of the launcher, a propulsive cartridge in the shaft of the bomb igntes, and further lofts the bomb to its target. A high explosive and an anti-tank HEAT shell are available, though other artillery-inspired munition types are expected to become available as well.
Weight: 19 lbs(5 lb warhead)
Range: 700 ft...Maximum range of 2,500 ft, but -1 to strike beyond 700 ft due to the slow velocity.
Damage:(High Explosive) 2d4x10 MD to 30 ft blast radius
(High Explosive Anti-Tank-HEAT) 2d6x10 MD to 4 ft blast area and Critical Damage on a Natural 18, 19, or 20.
Rate of Fire:Single shot
Payload: Single shot
Cost: (High Explosive) 1,200 credits
(High Explosive Anti-Tank-HEAT) 2,000 credits

[taalismn]

Yeah, but it's bloody ing annoying when I try posting and it drops the connection or refuses to go through 4-5 times!

[taalismn]

TWB-51 ‘FlameCougar’ Ground Attack Aircraft


“We were surprised as anyone when our studies of the Elemental Planes yielded up evidence that we simply weren’t dealing with Lesser and Greater Elementals, or fragments of same, but what appeared to be an entire ecology of sorts...animal analogues, proto-sentient analogues, sentient analogues...and by inference, god-being analogues. In retrospect, it makes sense...after all, the shadow-mages have been summoning Shadowbeasts, Shadowhounds, and Shadowsteads from a plane of total darkness, so it stands to reason that Elemental planes of existance might show similar signs of ‘biological’ diversity.
That might make little sense or immediate relevance to the layman and even to most Warlocks we knew...after all, if one is spending the power to summon up something, it might as well be powerful, right? Not much sense in summoning up the equivalent of an earthworm or a dumb rat? Well, that sort of concerned us, because Elementals tend to act rather ornery when called up...understandable in the light that you might have just pulled that particular Elemental away from its equivalent of a hot date or a peaceful bath....Fortunately, nobody’s yet called up the Elemental equivalent of a god...or if they did, nobody’s lived to tell about it....Well, call us cautious, or maybe deluded, but it occured to us that if we could summon up one of the animal-analogues, say, something between a fragment and a pre-adolecent, we might be able to tame the little bugger and turn it into something quite useful.
Not that we espouse enslaving feeling beings, but if I can make a comfortable doggie-kennel out of a jet-engine housing and keep a hot little plasma-cloud fire-elemental ‘dog’ or ‘cat’-analogue warm, safe, and well-fed when it’s on this plane, well, I rightly expect to get some work out of the little bugger...like passing a slipstream over it and getting a jet-efflux screaming out the other end. Exchange of services, that’s all.
And that’s what we did. Harnassed up the equivalent of a warthog or an oxen and put it to work. Hooked that kennel-stall up to an airframe. ‘Flame Junior’ gets to tour the world, safe inside that engine, and we get a darn effective little powerplant. If we thought for a MOMENT that we were harming them, we wouldn’t summon the little buggers. We have standards after all.
But since they AREN’T complaining, gentlemen, I see no reason why we shouldn’t utilize their work potential. Having proven the power of our new engines, we assure you, we have a number of promising airframe designs to go with them. Designs you of the militia will be VERY interested in...”
------Warlock Newal Concierrde, Hangar-18B officer, making a pitch to Tolkeen officials, a month before the Fall of Tolkeen.

“What those wonderboys at Hangar Eighteen DON’T tell you is that when you lose an engine on that cockup, and you will, given the way the engines are dangling out front where everybody can shoot at them....you can’t fix the thing even with the aide of a handy techno-wizard...Once containment is lost, the beastie inside zips straight off for its home dimension, without a ‘so long and thanks for the j-eight’! You can’t tack on a regular engine because it’s like putting different sized wheels on one side of your truck. And that nuke powerplant they insist adds ‘system redundancy’ does squat for powering a new thruster...all it seems to do is run the AC compressors and power all the pretty lights aboard.
No, you lose an engine, you gotta hike yourself back to wherever they’re currently lurking, or their agent is hanging out, and buy yourself a new engine, with a new bugger bound inside, and they charge more for a replacement that way than they would if it were just a mass-produced, stockpiled, thruster. Darn if I know how they mean to make a profit on this design, what with the lack of easily stockpiled spare parts...”
-----Avandon Schroeder, Aviation Merc, Black Skies Security


Roy Rollins didn’t know what had happened, he didn’t know where they were...all he knew was that they were all in hell, and he had no idea what they had done to deserve it. One day, it was all routine for Odensburrough, Idaho, tail-end of a dying series of old mine towns entering their twilight, and he the assistant sheriff with nothing more to do than bust the odd Friday-night drunk driver or the local kids for smoking weed. Then the night of that blue lightning came, and all the power and telephone and cable TV service had gone out. Then he and a few of his buddies in the State Police who had been in town overnight had gone out to investigate...only to find that the roads literally stopped at the edge of town, and a wilderness none of them ever remembered seeing had sprung up where there should have been the next town.
It was while the police and a handful of townsfolk had been standing around pondering this strangeness that the monsters had hit from the other side of town...
First had come the screams, then the flashes....An entire building coming down...and what seemed like every bad zombie movie Rollins had ever seen came to life...people running and screaming, and almost palpable cloud of darkness darker and more total than the night rolling over the town. Rollins had tried calling the police station and his chief, only to hear static...he’d tried calling the state troopers on the other side of town, only to hear them cut off in a crash of screaming and panicked calls for help....
Then the chaos had swept over them as they raced back into town...Rollins had seen dark shapes sweeping up the road in the headlights of his cars, just before the first car had seemed to explode...and the dying began for him...
And now they last half-dozen county poilice were making a last stand, along with a few dozen terrified townsfolk, barricaded at an autosupply shop, blasting away with their Homeland Security-bought armaments and home firearms into the darkness to little or no effect, as far as he could tell. The sweep of his pickup’s top-mounted spotlight showed him the truth...the parking lot of the strip mall they had taken refuge in...the highway servicing it...swarming with the same black half-cat, half-human, all-nightmare shapes that had ripped Todd Woilkin’s cruiser apart, had beheaded the local skinhead gang as they tried to flee on their choppers, that now lay seige to the townspeople’s final refuge....
It was then that his radio had crackled to life again, reminding him of his last attempts to get in touch with anyone, to get help, or just to let somebody out there know their dire situation. He fairly dove for the radio, catching it up in mid-sqwack...
***”....Come again Oe-Bee Pee-THree? Request assist....”****
“THis is Oe-Bee Pee Three!!! Anyone, this is the deputy sheriff! Who are you! Over!”
****”....Oe-Bee Three, you requested assistance? This is H-Cat .What is the nature of your emergency? Over.”****
“THis is deputy sheriff Rollins! We’re pinned down here in the Red-E-Mart! We’ve got hundreds of things surrounding us....hundreds of things, they’re coming for us! Over!!!”
*****“ ....Oe-Bee Three, this is H-cat. What sort of things? Describe them and where you are. Over.”*****
“They’re some sort of monster! Big ape-like things with cat heads....they’re freakin’ stalking us...got us trapped in the strip mall off Interstate 45, at the ‘T”...They’re all over the parking lot and highway and closing in....They ain’t human! I don’t know what they are! H-Cat, whoever you are...try to get through to the National Guard! Call the Army if you can! We ain’t going to last here, but warn everybody else!!!”
*****”....Oe-Bee Three, we think we see you....tee-intersection, over?”****
That last comment really caught Rollins’ attention,....it almost suggested....oh god, but his eyes were going buggo watching in terror the darkness, seeing the darting, almost fluid movements of the ...whatever they were...as they closed in....stalking...PLAYING with their victims....
“YES!!! The T-section, near the Mobile station! We’re just on the outskirts of town!!!”
****” Hang in there, Oe-Bee Three, T-Cats vectoring in on you... we see ‘em now......All over there, ain’t they...Got T-Cats inbound on your position....Expect incoming in eight.... six.....four.....”*****
FLASH
Rollins rocked back in his truck cab as the sky lit up like a flaming cloud...and two massive silvery aircraft came thundering in over the parking lot, almost taking the top off the Mobile station sign. His eyes were practically peeled by the sudden illumination, but what he saw was chiselled onto the back of his optic nerve.....the massive aircraft screaming it, their noses flashing, flame shooting out from engine pods just below their cockpits, fanning out into massive wakes of fire behind them....then, giant wheels of fire spitting out from the intakes, slowly dropping down ahead of the racing jets...or rockets...or whatever they were...and hitting the ground rolling...
.....The roadway and parking lot heaving up like the earth itself were vomiting forth dirt and fire, pieces of the monsters that had moments ago been stalking forward, flipping into the air...then the wheels of fire hit, rolling like blazing tires, racing down the length of the road, smashing down and incinerating still more of the beasts....
Then the wake of fire behind the aircraft settling like a massive burning cloud, or a burning carpet, coming down on top of still more of the beasts, cremating them as they were caught out in the open....Then the noise of the jets hit...a rolling, earth-shaking, chest-grabbing surge that practically lifted up Rollins and his fellows and dropped them back down. Windows shattered, asphalt melted, cars out in the parking lot went up....and monsters died....
Rollins, half-blinded, half-deafened, could only boggle at the destruction suddenly wrought in front of him. This night had just gone from weird, to insane, to hellish, to catastrophic....As he fought to catch his shuddering breath, a part of him wondered; he’d been pulled into the Twilight Zone, he’d been hunted by monsters, he’d just been ringside to a downtown nuke-attack...
...What the hell was going to happen next?



“Hey Rakshasa baby! THIS little kitty-kat’s got a load of flaming death just for YOU!!!”


Not all Techno-Wizard ‘retrotech’ designs are based on famous or award-winning vehicles from Earth’s illustrious past; sometimes all it takes is a good set of plans or photos, a set of calipers, sudden inspiration, and all too often, lots of alcohol, for a Techno-Wizard(or, worse, a group of challenge-minded Techno-Wizards), to start out working on an idea simply because it ‘looks/sounds cool’. Sometimes, after lots of frustrated work, the idea fails to pan out and the parties involved lose interest, but more often, given the bloodyminded persistance of Techno-Wizards to beat the odds, when the science and statistics aren’t cooperating, the TWizard will use magic to twist and warp commonsense to produce a winner. Among those of the Techno-Wizard community, there is already speculation that the developers of the TWB-51 ‘FlameCougar’ are onto something.
The TWB-51 owes its superficial design to a pre-Rifts prototype Air Force close-support bomber, the Martin XB-51, a three-engined jet aircraft with an engine arrangement which many aviation historians claim was inspired by an earlier late-WW2 German design study(the Messerschmitt Me P.1102). With a long body, swept wings, a pair of engines mounted just under the leading edge wingroots of the wings, and a third engine buried at the base of the ‘T’ -tail, the XB-51 looked unconventional, and innovative, but, despite extensive testing and much evaluation, failed to make the grade for production. Centuries later, the design configuration and designation-number would be resurrected by a group of history-minded Techno-Wizard aviation buffs, calling themselves ‘Hangar 18B’. This Tolkeen-based design group came across papers on the old XB-51 in the Tolkeen university library, and decided it would make a good project to see ‘what if...”.
The prototype TWB-51 was actually complete at the time of the Seige of Tolkeen, but had little actual role in the defense of the city. With only half of its combat avionics fitted, and no available bombload, the aircraft would have been at best a short-lived kamikaze against the overwhelming low-level air defenses that the Coalition invasion force brought to bear against Tolkeen’s defenders. Instead, seeing the ultimate fate of the city looming, the Hanger 18B’ers chose flight over fight, and flew their prototype, staff, and what materials they could cram into the bays of their aircraft and got out during the early stages of the attack. How they managed to get through the chaos and massive Coalition air presence is still open to debate; superb piloting, winning design, or pure dumb luck....though it is rumored that the TW-arms merchant Prid Sigil( SoT 6; pg 164), having taken an interest in Hanger-18B’s work, lent them assistance in escaping.
Since Hangar-18B’s escape from doomed Tolkeen, the band has disappeared, but evidently they have managed to find a new base of operations and support; a small number of TWB-51s, showing the signs of post-production refinement, have begun showing up on the Black Market.

The TWB-51 superficially resembles the XB-51, and has the same general dimensions, with a slightly different nose, cockpit, and nacelle appearance, with a pair of small canards extending from the sides of the raised cockpit bubble) but internally is a far different beast. The TWB-51 is powered by both a small fusion-nuclear powerplant, and by a trio of ensorcelled Fire Elementals(or animalistic beings akin to Fire Eelementals) who provide the primary propulsion. The caged Elemental ‘animal’ sits inside the refractory material-lined, and ensorcelled, nacelle, generating heat(even when the aircraft is at rest, requiring the fusion generator to continue running ventilation and cooling systems), and is usually content with just a good flow of air to heat/superheat(although some crews like to ‘reward’ their engine-beasts with a treat of kerosene, avgas, or some other combustible substance for the fire-beast to consume). This more powerful hybrid powerplant system actually makes the TWB-51 supersonic in performance, as well as opens up space originally devoted to fuel tankage, for additional avionics and a systems management officer. Tougher megadamage materials have replaced the original SDC metals, and special enchantments have been placed on the craft, further strengthening its airframe and armor for its intended ground attack role. A third crew position is added; an electronic countermeasures/mage officer, to complement the pilot and navigator/bombardier. The original evacuation sequence has been supplemented ; instead of individual bailout/ejection seats, the crew can elect to stay in a special crew pod that can separate from the fuselage(they still retain individual escape seats). The TWB-51 mounts modest armor, but carries multiple levels of magical protection to compensate for the lack of advanced megadamage materials, like those used by the Coalition and Triax. A fairly basic electronic warfare system provides some additional protection against guided weaponry and sensor systems.

Since resuming operations, Hangar-18B has already begun hinting that the TWB-51 could be upgraded(as a discounted service to early buyers), with suggested modifications including a more powerful electronic warfare suite, more advanced armor, more accurate fire control, and a greater range of conventional and technowizardry armaments. Hangar-18B has also been approaching various other independent arms manufacturers and developers, in regard to their upgrades program, seeking subcontractors for new systems and hardware.

The XB-51, if it had been approved for service, might have received the name ‘Panther’----Hangar-18B has honored their inspiration by giving the TWB-51 the name ‘FlameCougar’.

Recently, a small number of TWB-51s have appeared in the Paladin Steel catalogue, suggesting the design is either being retailed through the PS sales network, or that Hangar-18B has licensed the design to be manufactured by Paladin Steel.

Type: H18B-TWB-51
Class: Close Support Medium Bomber
Crew: Three
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 360
Reinforced Crew Compartment 100
Engine Nacelles(2) * 180 each
Wings*(2) 180 each
Tail 100
*Destroying the engine nacelles will free the Fire Elementals inside who may or may not immediately disappear back to their home plane
Height:17ft 4 in.
Width: 52 ft wingspan
Length: 85 ft
Weight: 60,000 lbs fully loaded
Cargo: 10,600 lbs in bomb bay
Powerplant: Nuclear-Fusion(w/ 15 year energy life)/Techno-Wizardry PPE ‘Powerstone’ Generator/Accumulator---300 PPE battery capacity; recharges at 10 PPE per hour, 40 PPE/hour at a leyline, 80 PPE/hour on a nexus
The spells and refractory materials holding the Elemental engine together last about 9 years, and must be replaced/renewed at the end of that period.
Speed:(Ground) Limited to taxiing about on the airfield/runway
(Flying) 690 MPH , maximum altitude 40,600 ft
Can hit 960 MPH on a Leyline, with the Leyline Boosters engaged.
Market Cost: 30 million credits fully equipped
Systems of Note:
*Nose Radar---100 mile range
*Tail Radar---The TWB-51 mounts a tail radar set, providing it radar warning coverage to the rear.
*Life Support---Robot vehicle standard
*Low-Light Optics---With computer-enhanced HUD, for all-weather bombing and night operations.
*Laser Rangefinding/Targeting----+1 to strike with cannon, +2 to strike w/ guided munitions.
*EW Suite---Basic frequency jumping and radar/IR jamming. Radar-guided weapons are -4 to strike the craft

Weapons Systems:
1)Nose Cannon(8)---Original historical configuration called for eight 20-mmm autocannon in the nose, but Hanger 18B has elected to mount only four rapid-fire cannon, and replace the other four with TW lightning cannon, for a combined kinetic/energy attack.
a) 20mm Autocannon(4)
Range: 7,000 ft
Damage: 1d6x10 MD per 10 rd burst(only fires bursts)
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: 450 rds per gun
b) Heavy TW Lightning Blasters(4)
Range: 4,000 ft
Damage:5d6 MD per blast
Rate of Fire: ECHH
Payload: Effectively Unlimited; spells have to be renewed every month
Note: All eight weapons firing at once does a grand total of 6d6x10 MD per attack, at 4,000 ft range

2)Flame Nacelles(2 forward)---The original H-18B plan was to mount a heavy autocannon in the nose, like that carried by the A-10 Thunderbolt, for ground attack, but the Hanger-18B’ers realized that the Fire Elementals in the chin nacelles could be persuaded to unleash much more effective flame attacks through the front of their housings.
The primary attack is a longer-ranged variant of the FireElemental spell Wheel of Fire. The nacelles expel rolling, rampaging wheels of flame that run through enemy lines(following one of several possible pre-determined patterns...such as a widening spiral or zig-zag serpentine) doing incredible damage and spreading chaos. This attack can be used ONLY by the two chin nacelles, as the Fire Wheels eject from the front of the nacelles(pilots report a temporary reduction in thrust when this happens, and inexperienced pilots are advised to watch out for possible low-altitude stall risk if in a nose-down strafing posture). This attack CANNOT be used at supersonic speeds(the aircraft must slow down, to avoid having the fire wheel rebound into itself).
The second attack involves expelling a flaming cloud of plasma from the rear ends of the engines...While these clouds attract thermo-homing weapons very easily, they can be used to decoy and destroy such missiles and other threats behind the bomber. They can also be used as giant flares, illuminating the ground below. When flying low enough, the flame clouds can also be used to blanket ground targets in fire. This attack can be generated by all three engines.
a) Fire Wheel Thrower
Range: 4,000 ft; wheel is 10 ft wide and 15 feet in diameter, and lasts for 20 melees/5 minutes, rolling at a speed of 18
Damage: 1d8x10 MD per contact, plus 74% chance of setting combustibles on fire
Rate of Fire: Three times per melee
Payload: Effectively Unlimited
Penalties: Effectively a ground attack weapon; is -4 to strike airborne targets.

b) Flaming Cloud
Range: Cloud spreads out to cover a 50 ft wide area(all three nacelles create a fire cloud roughly 90 ft wide, due to overlap), and burns for 1d6 melees
When used to attack ground targets, the cloud can be effectively ‘dropped’ from altitudes of 1,000 ft.
Damage: 4d6 MD per melee to anything caught inside the cloud, plus 70% chance of setting combustibles on fire.
Rate of Fire: Once per melee
Payload: Effectively Unlimited

3) Bomb Bay----The TWB-51 can carry over 5 tons of ordnance, typically gravity-bombs and TW munitions, but the bay can also be outfitted with a rotary missile launcher. ONE of the following configurations can be fitted;
a) Rotary Missile Launcher can hold 24 LRMs, OR 48 MRMS, OR 96 SRMs, OR 192 MiniMissiles
b) Bombs--Can carry warhead equivalents of missiles, but DOUBLE the respective number, or retain the same number, and DOUBLE the damage.
General effective range of a gravity bomb is half a mile(0.8 km) from drop point.
‘Smart’ Bombs are laser or command-guided and hit large stationary targets automatically! Moving vehicles can also be targeted (at +6 to strike).

4) Flare/Chaff Launchers(2)
Range: Close Defense
Damage: None; similar to Triax-style chaff
01-50 Enemy Missile or volley detonates in chaff and threat is neutralized
51-75 Missile/Volley diverts and may pursue/lock on to other targets
76-00 No Effect! Missile(s) still on target!
Will also temporarily blind and impede flying monsters who fly into it.
Reduce APMs/combat bonuses/ speed by half for 1d4 melees
Payload: 18 per launcher

Additional TW Systems:
*Impervious to Fire(10 minutes per 5 PPE)
*Impervious to Energy( 5 minutes per 20 PPE)
*Protective Energy Field(50 MDC per 10 PPE, 10 minutes per 10 PPE)
*Leyline Booster(Accelerates the jet up to 50% greater top speed when on a leyline, -10% to pilot skill when engaged)


Hangar-18B/Lockheed TWF-94 Starfire

“Captain, wasn’t hitting that caravan with twenty-four missiles a bit...excessive? Those things are rather powerful.”
“Lieutenant, there were Brodkil down there, and Brodkil take a lick of killing to keep down...ain’t no such thing as excessive killing with them, understand?”

Another ‘retrojet’ design by Hangar-18B since its escape from doomed Tolkeen, the TWF-94 Starfire takes its inspiration from the pre-Rifts Lockheed F-94 Starfire, an early all-weather, jet-propelled, and rocket-armed interceptor that had been developed from the venerable Shooting Star design. Hangar-18B has re-developed the design into a potent techno-wizardry attack fighter, a less-expensive(and in the opinion of some, much-needed) combat escort fighter to Hangar-18B’s previous TWB-51 bomber/attack jet.
The TWF-94 is a subsonic straight-winged jet aircraft, showing its design lineage descent from the early American Shooting Star jet fighters. The primary armament of the Starfire is multiple batteries of TW rockets; one pod mounted in each wing, and a ring of concealed launchers in the nose, around the radome, give the Starfire a powerful attack weapon, especially when launched in salvos. However, the unguided nature of the rockets means that the Starfire must get in relatively close to its target, especially in air combat, to insure a solid hit. With the replacement of the original J48 jet engine with a fire elemental powerplant(using Hangar 18B’s signature ‘harnassing’ of animal-level Fire Elemental entities), the need for (large)fuel tanks has been removed(though a smaller main fuselage tank is retained to ‘reward’ the propulsion fire-beast with a shot of avgas or other flammable fluid), and Hangar-18B’s engineers have taken advantage of the situation to turn the wingtip fuel tanks of the original design into additional weapons mounts, giving the Starfire much-needed backup weaponry.
Unlike the previous ‘Flame Cougar’ bomber, the TWF-94 carries a single animal-intelligence fire elemental, and no back-up nuclear fusion powerplant for auxiliary power. Instead, the waste heat generated by the elemental powerplant is converted through thermocouples into electrical power for the rest of the aircraft’s systems. With the advance in experience with their binding magicks, the technowizards of Hangar-18B have also been able to extend the lifespan of the containment vessel by 30%, meaning that the TWF-94 has a longer operational life between engine overhauls. A backup TW Powerstone system provides raw PPE for the rest of the aircraft’s magical systems, and any accessory systems added on post-production(field modifications and upgrade kits).
Hangar-18B hasn’t shirked the other essentials either; the airframe has been reinforced with modern megadamage alloys(the rather straightforward cylinerical body frame making it easy to up-armor), anti-missile chaff launchers have been added, and the whole backed by several magical defenses(especially important since the aircraft is intended to act in the ground support role, where enemy ground fire is a real hazard). The nose-mounted radar set is a copy of a Coalition design, though how Hangar-18B’s techs got ahold of the design and whether or not they’re manufacturing it on their own, or are buying from somebody else, is unknown. Redesigned landing gear allow for short take off/landing on relatively unimproved fields(especially important in the post-Rifts world).
Hangar-18B’s rocket-armed Starfire has found itself competing for marketshare with another retrotech ‘rocket-boat’ jet fighter, the purely technological Valkyrie Industries Scorpion.
Recently, a number of TWF-94s have been showing up in Paladin Steel showrooms...Whether Hangar-18B is using PS to help market its products, or has entered into an agreement with the larger company to mass-produce new fighters, remains unknown.
Type: H18B-TWF-94
Class: Two-Seat All-Weather Interceptor
Crew: Two; pilot and sensor operator
MDC/Armor by Location:
Main Body 350
Reinforced Crew Compartment/Cockpit 100
Wings(2) 120 each
Wing Missile Pods(2) 80 each
Wingtip Cannon Pods(2) 100 each
Tail 100
Height:12 ft 8 in.
Width: 38 ft 11 in
Length: 40 ft 11 in.
Weight: 16,000 lbs fully loaded
Cargo: Small space in crew seats for survival gear and a few small personal possessions.
Powerplant: Fire Elemental Jet Engine w/Techno-Wizardry PPE ‘Powerstone’ Generator/Accumulator---180 PPE battery capacity; recharges at 10 PPE per hour, 40 PPE/hour at a leyline, 80 PPE/hour on a nexus
The spells and refractory materials holding the Elemental engine together last about 12 years, and must be replaced/renewed at the end of that period.
Speed: (Flying) 640 MPH, maximum altitude of 48,000 ft
With Leyline Booster engaged, the aircraft can actually go supersonic(800 MPH), but only on a Ley Line.
STOL performance allows the aircraft to take off/land in as little as 1,000 ft of runway (can take off in as little as 100 ft w/ disposable JATO bottles/TW Fire Pots attached)
Market Cost: 46 million credits
Systems of Note:
*Ejection Seats
*HUD-Head Up Display
*Environmental Protection/Life Support---Pressurized cabin(though crew typically wears pressure suits/EBA for additional protection).
*Long Range Radio----100 mile range
*Long Range Radar---100 mile range
*Radar Detector---Picks up enemy radar emissions and weapons locks
*Laser Rangefinding/Targeting----+1 to strike with cannon and rockets
Weapons Systems:
1) TW Rockets(24 in nose(6x4), 12 in each wing pod)---The Starfire uses the same large TW rockets used in the TW Rocket Staff; unguided projectiles with a powerful explosive punch. Typically the rockets are fired in salvos of three or more to increase the chances of a hit. Hangar-18B has been looking into future improvements for this weapons system along the lines of magically-induced ‘smart’ guidance for the projectiles, and longer-ranged missiles, but so far nothing definite has emerged.
Range: 3 miles
Damage: 2d4x10 MD to a 30 ft blast radius
Rate of Fire: Volleys of 1-6
Payload: 24 in nose, 12 in each wing, 48 total.

2) Wingtip Weapons Pods---Each re-modelled wingtip pod holds a pair of TW energy projectors; a TW Starfire Pulse Cannon providing a limited capacity, short range, but incredibly powerful blast, and a lighter, longer-ranged, TW Lightning Projector with effectively unlimited shots.
Range:(StarFire Pulse Cannon) 2,000 ft
(Lightning Projector) 4,000 ft
Damage:(StarFire Pulse Cannon) 2d6x10 MD per blast
(Lightning Projector) 5d6 MD per blast
Rate of Fire:(StarFire Pulse Cannon) Four times per melee
(Lightning Projector) ECHH
Payload:(StarFire Pulse Cannon) Effectively Unlimited; spells must be renewed every month
(Lightning Projector) Effectively Unlimited; spells must be renewed every month

3) Flare/Chaff Launchers(2)
Range: Close Defense
Damage: None; similar to Triax-style chaff
01-50 Enemy Missile or volley detonates in chaff and threat is neutralized
51-75 Missile/Volley diverts and may pursue/lock on to other targets
76-00 No Effect! Missile(s) still on target!
Will also temporarily blind and impede flying monsters who fly into it.
Reduce APMs/combat bonuses/ speed by half for 1d4 melees
Payload: 12 per launcher

Additional TW Systems:
*Impervious to Fire(10 minutes per 5 PPE)
*Impervious to Energy( 5 minutes per 20 PPE)
*Protective Energy Field(50 MDC per 10 PPE, 10 minutes per 10 PPE)
*Leyline Booster(Accelerates the jet up to 50% greater top speed when on a leyline, -10% to pilot skill when engaged)

[ZINO]

wow that really good