Transcendence Equipment Examples

Melee Weapons

Edged Weapons

Vibroblade-a vibroblade is a universally common "melee weapon", as much tool as emergency weapon. Of limited use against heavier personal armors, vibroblades are generally weapons of last resort as well as civilian pathfinding and utility tools.

Powerblades-standard powerblades come in all varieties, from light daggers to axes to heavy two-handed swords. Using a disruption field to enhance a high-frequency edge with a high-density strike face, a powerblade is a standard issue melee weapon for just about every planet's armed forces. Variants from the high-frequency blade such as chainsaw or monowire blades also exist as powerblades.

Energy Blades-energy blades are a combination of contained plasma and forcefields, which allows them to keep an extraordinarily sharp edge and parry conventional weapons. Inertial field generators, and adaptive counterweights in the hilt give the illusion of blade mass with computer assistance, reducing the amount of retraining necessary to use an energy blade. Energy blades are superior at causing injury but more expensive and less durable-parries which would merely damage a power blade can overload an energy blade, causing it to go into emergency shutdown, or even melt into uselessness.

Blunt Weapons

Blunt weapons generally operate in two ways-either the weapon is used to deliver a crushing blow and a munition at point-blank, or the use of inertial amplifiers increase their blunt trauma impact, snapping bones and rupturing organs through armor. The former is more useful against heavier armor but requires skill to place a solid blow, while even glancing blows by inertially amplified weapons can cause grievous injury on personnel without inertially damped armor.

Impact Hammer-these heavy warhammers have a snubnose plasma or slug weapon built into their strike face, and heavy distortion fields. Upon impact, the distortion fields overload any shield systems in the armor, and the warhammer fires either a high-explosive slug or a plasma jet into the target at point-blank. Skill is required to place the muzzle of the snubnose cannon directly on the target to maximize damage, but the damage an impact hammer can cause is

Inertial Cestus-used by Dorian brawlers in pankration, the Dorian hand to hand martial art, impact cestuses have small inertial drives that function in "amplification" mode upon impact, greatly increasing the inertia behind the blow. Secondary systems damp the recoil force, ensuring that the user does not tear his own arms off with a poorly aimed punch. Although poor at penetrating armor, the sheer inertia of such blows can cause heavy damage due to blunt trauma.

Ranged Weapons

Due to advancements in materials science outstripping advancements in ranged weaponry, ranged weapons have become somewhat less useful and caused a resurgence in melee weaponry, as sustained fire is needed to bring down foot soldiers. However, they are still an important component of a soldier's arsenal and every civilized soldier is expected to master both blade and gun.

Slug Weapons

Slug weapons are kinetic accelerators, generally using electromagnetic acceleration, possibly in concert with gyrojet or electrothermal propulsion. Standard slug ammunition comes in several varieties, from armor-piercing delayed fragmentation to incendiary to toxin-equipped. Most ammunition for slug weapons comes in glassy blocks of programmable polymer that are adaptively shaped into munitions with the desired qualities, and in the case of electrothermal weapons, reservoirs of liquid explosive. These blocks have caused many soldiers to refer to their weapons as "glass guns".

Glass Pistol-glass pistols are top-loaded pistols with their barrels low and close to the trigger, freeing up the entire top section of the weapon for a block of ammunition, giving them superior ammunition capacity to normal magazine-fed pistols. When empty, only the thin plastic case (used to protect the ammunition block from weather) is left, which is automatically ejected. Variations on these sidearms are used throughout civilization and even by barbarian powers.

Hoplite Morph Weapon-the Hoplite morph weapon is a fairly standard weapon for heavy infantry, combining ranged and melee attack capability. Its primary function is a slug rifle firing armor-piercing ammunition at a high rate of fire or shapes , but it also possess a powered bayonet which can be folded up for melee fighting. In melee, the weapon can be extended to up to 30% of its normal length providing a large spear, or maintain its normal profile if the reach is excessive.

Mark 11 Rifle-used by Kosalan skirmishers and inspired by the god Rudra's weapon of choice, the Mark 11 rifle is a long linear accelerator that fires specialist biotoxin ammunition. These large-caliber slugs pierce armor and break up on contact with living objects, spreading a host of deadly nanoviruses. The use of large-caliber slugs allows each slug to possess a weak disruption field to weaken shields, but makes every shot by the Mark 11 expensive, such that it is only issued to master snipers.

Armor

Armor is generally powered and integrated with the user via direct neural interface. The armor of civilized powers not only protects, but enhances athleticism, battlefield endurance, and strength. All armor generally has integrated sensors throughout its "skin" and provides medical support via surgical nanomachinery, and will self-seal, as well as self-repair over time.

Myomer Armor-commonly used by light infantry who prefer stealth and speed to raw protection, myomer armor is an artificial muscle suit with limited protection provided by the toughness of the artificial muscles, a thick layer of ballistic elastomers reinforced by interwoven carbon nanotubes, and integrated field projectors. Thin metal "bones" provide skeletal support for the user, and a coating of radar and thermal dampening material allow skirmishers and other light infantry to outmaneuver heavier infantry on the field. To dissipate its heat burden, the armor generally possesses lines of thermo-optical heatsinks to dissipate waste heat, which seem to "glow" when active-leading to the "glowing line" phenomena seen on myomer suits in combat. Needless to say, this glow can be shut down if stealth is a necessity (although doing so greatly reduces endurance at maximum augmentation), and the armor can either store heat or dump it via the soles.

Hoplite Battle Armor-Hoplite battle armor is commonly seen used by the soldiers of Hellas and representative of most heavy armor. Massing approximately 75 kg, the armor is full body hard armor, encasing the entire soldier with centimeters of ceramic and amorphous metal, as well as a body-hugging shield. Although massive, its thick myomer musculature and heavy exoskeleton allow its user to move as if entirely unencumbered, and a small inertial motor allows it to not only guide thrown weapons after launch but make incredible leaps despite its mass. Its sole weaknesses are a large thermal signature, a relatively short combat endurance, and its expense.

Civilian Equipment

Servitor Automata-ranging from walking tables with small tentacle limbs to humanoid machines, servitor automata are given varying intelligence and autonomy and capable of accomplishing basic tasks. Simple ones can merely move around and do basic household work, while the most advanced models are granted human intellect and can do complex tasks with minimal supervision.

Guard Animals-genetically engineered for loyalty and enhanced physical and mental ability, guard animals are extremely easy to train and loyal to whoever purchases them, but dangerous when provoked. These run the gamut from dogs, to wolves, to more exotic animals such as lions and tigers and serpents and other, stranger things, and are often cybernetically enhanced.