Aberrant: Exile (Team Tactics)

Overview

This is where we write down the ideas we have for how the team should work together in case of a fight. The idea is not to create a step by step tactical manual, but rather to have some idea of how the team should work together as a team, rather than everyone fighting as individuals. E.g. who acts as each others wingmen, who is responsible for what, do we take prisoners, when do we retreat, and how do we preserve each others covert identities.

Alexander Vincent's Magnificent Mechas

Being a list of the various mecha that Alexander Vincent has designed for the team or other interested parties, if we should meet any and be willing to sell.

Model I Urban Mecha

This was the first urban mecha that Alexander Vincent designed after the teams arrival on Earth. It is meant as a rough and ready template for quickly creating identical mecha using Molecular Manipulation. The design emphasises pilot survival, multiple-redundancies, and short-range combat capabilities over all other things. This comes at the cost of irrelevant features like being easily deployable, having long range endurance, or anything that isn't short term fighting power.

Technical Description

Appearance: The M1s look is more reminiscent of the Fueradler than any American or Asian design; ugly, angular, and ultimately extremely functional. On its back is a rough backpack like structure from which it can launch heavy smart-missiles, but its primary weaponry is a set of Gatling guns mounted on its arms.

Pilot Housing: The pilot is housed inside of the torso, protected by a thick metal and ceramic cocoon. Even if damage penetrated to damage the mecha it must also penetrate the cocoon to get to the pilot. Naturally an easy escape route is also provided to ensure that the pilot can get out in case of an emergency.

Electronics: The triple redundant systems are designed specifically to deal with psions or other individuals with the ability to interfere with the normal use of electronics.

1st tier is a set of standard hardened high-performance electronics. While these are still functional the mecha is capable of taking semi-autonomous action on its own. In order to counter any electrokinetic takeover attempts there is a manual switch to physically shut down and disconnect this system.

2nd tier electronics are made from ultra-miniaturized carbonite vacuum tubes, which are physically hardcoded into a single function. Because the functions are all physically hardcoded there's no programming to wipe, no more than there would be in a set of Hollerith cards. It can however be temporarily disrupted, and here vacuum tubes has the benefit that they handle much larger amounts of energy than transistor electronics usually would. This is good since it means that most surges won't hurt them. However it's also bad because it means that they will run far hotter than conventional electronics. To overcome the heating problem a supply of liquid nitrogen is included to cool the vacuum tubes. The performance of this system is also, for obvious reasons, inferior to the 1st tier system, but it's still perfectly up to the task.

3rd tier is not electronics at all, but an entirely mechanical system like something out of a steampunk movie. Though the mecha remains serviceable its capacities are significantly degraded. Powerful gyroscopes means that the mecha can still maintain its balance and footing, while fibreoptic cameras, reliant on light rather than electricity, means that the pilot still has decent vision. Generally this mode should only be used to extract yourself or while you wait for the 2nd tier to recover.

Power Source: Alexander Vincent's history in aeronautics and his love of Cold War craziness has given him an in-depth knowledge of ludicrously reactive fuels. The mecha is powered by twin turbine generators which use a fuel he refers to as KB-1 (Short for Kaboomium-1). The reactive nature of the fuel is such that the engine is actually being destroyed by using it, but since it's not intended to last more than five hours at most this is not really an issue. Naturally he has taken basic safety precautions such as self-sealing fuel tanks, the fuel being encased in a nanofiber honeycomb network, the ability to vent pierced tanks, and so forth. This creates very high amounts of power generation in a fairly safe manner.

Drivetrain and Actuators: Instead of modern myomers this model uses high-powered hydraulics operating at very high pressures for walking and major arm movements. While miniaturized hydraulic servos handle fine motor movements, such as the hands. Although this may seem very backwards it has the benefit of being able to function even in the total absence of electronics. Furthermore through the use of redundancies and modern materials the movement may not be as fluid as that of a VARG but it has far more brute force and even raw punching speed.

Armour: The mecha is protected by a specialized composite armour made from advanced steel alloys, Aluminium-Titanium alloys, ceramics and nano-ceramics. One of the primary benefits of this particular armour design is that it isn't modular; the armour is applied for maximum protection and strength with no thought for repairs or maintenance. Joints are protected by a mixture of spider-silk armour mixed with strands of asbestos and nano-fibres.

Weaponry: The primary weapon is the twin 30mm Gatling guns, one mounted on each arm. These guns use a binary liquid propellant to launch their bullets, once more this mature technology is used for optimal reliability. Each 30mm shell is cased in a combustible material which ignites as it is launched, effectively turning it into a miniature scramjet. Maximum velocity is reached around 20m and sustained for at least 400m, more than enough for urban combat. Each shell is cored with Depleted Uranium for maximum penetration, but also because of the pyrophoric qualities of depleted uranium. Health issues due to DU are not considered since any remnants of the DU will disappear within five hours.

The secondary armament is a set of 8 missiles carried on its back. Although the size of the mecha ensures that it could probably carry more, numbers have been sacrificed for making larger and faster missiles. The missiles can be set to strike a certain area before launch, given their extreme acceleration they may shoot out, spin around and start terminal acceleration so fast that many slow moving enemies are unable to get out of the way in time. If not target designators built into each mecha can guide the missile towards their goal.

The tertiary and generally hidden armament is a set of plasma cutters build into each arm and which fire through the palm of the hand. These are generally useless at over 20m ranges, but at close range or better yet melee range they can be devastatingly effective.

Performance: Though slower and somewhat less agile than a VARG of the same size, it is also much stronger. To use MMO terms this mecha is the tank of the team, able to take considerable amounts of damage for the team while still dishing out quite a bit on its own.

Statistics

To be determined