HITMarks: The Chaingunning

Basics

HITMarks are generally autonomous, unenlightened magical cyborgs used by Iteration X. The current known varieties of HITMark and their statistics are given below. This assumes using the armor rules from Magical Gun Porn. If not, 'H' armors give automatic successes, so double them and roll them as dice instead.

Models and Variants

Mark I

The Mark I is a large (2 meter tall), slow machine resembling an armored knight which is (according to the Technocracy at least) the first semi-autonomous Iteration X HITMark. Capable of following orders in a limited fashion without supervision, it is strong, tough, and incredibly stupid. It's only seen in decommissioned caches dating back to the Victorian era now, or used for very special purposes.

Introduced: 1790

Obsolete: 1880

Power Source: Hypertensile primium spring driving multiple cam shafts (Mechanical)

Musculature: High-precision clockwork

Armor: Solid-cast Primium Plating

Cognitive Core: Miniaturized Difference Engine.

Special Rules:

Slow-Witted: The Mark I's initiative is Dexterity (1) + Wits (1) + 1 (for a total of 3), not +1d10. It may not take multiple actions.

Steady Grasp: The Mark I has +1 Dexterity for melee and ranged attacks.

No Self Will: The Mark I is immune to all Mind effects unless the caster has valid Technocratic passcodes, at which point the Mark I automatically obeys orders if the Mind effect is successful. Both Etherites and Virtual Adepts do, in fact, have valid Mark I passcodes, as both left long after they were obsoleted.

Strength 4/Dexterity 1/Stamina 3
Charisma 0/Manipulation 0/Appearance N/A
Perception 1/Intelligence 0/Wits 1
Important Abilities

Alertness 1

Archery 3

Brawl 3

Melee 3

Firearms 3

Armor 4d (7d total soak), 2d Primium Countermagic
Health Levels: -0/-0/-1/-1/-2/Disabled/Destroyed
Inbuilt Weapons: Retractable Blade (Str + 3L damage), Volleygun (6L damage, Range 50, RoF 5 [fires bursts/full-auto], Magazine 20)
Paradox: 0

Mark I Upgrade

Taking old concepts and renewing them with cutting-edge technology, the Mark I upgrade (Mark IU) is designed for environments with persistent high-grade electromagnetic interference or other forms of interference with the more complex systems of advanced HITMarks. Replacing the original clockwork with precision nanoscale engineering, the Mark IU is faster, stronger, and significantly tougher, with attributes comparable to a Mark V. Standard armament includes a segmented monoblade (a "Progressive Blade") that is hypersharp and easily cuts through armor and flesh that breaks after multiple uses, retractable claws, and a diamondoid flechette dispenser.

Introduced: 1930

Obsolete: Never

Power Source: Nanoscale flywheel array

Musculature: Micromechanical pulleys

Armor: Primium Nanocomposite Sheathing with Reactive Gel Backing

Cognitive Core: Nanomechanical Computer

Special Rules:

Hyperhardened: The Mark IU's simple and multiple-redundant construction counts as coincidental under almost all paradigms (even inside Chantry Realms normally hostile to technological paradigms). Furthermore, all attempts to shut it down via magic require double the normal amount of successes.

Strength 5/Dexterity 2/Stamina 5
Charisma 0/Manipulation 0/Appearance N/A
Perception 2/Intelligence 2/Wits 2
Important Abilities

Alertness 2

Brawl 4

Dodge 2

Melee 4

Firearms 4

Strategy 1

Armor 3H (5d [3] total soak), 4d Primium Countermagic
Health Levels: -0/-0/-0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-5/Disabled/Destroyed
Inbuilt Weapons: Progressive Blade (Str + 5L damage, enemies soak at +3 difficulty, breaks after 10 uses), Claws (Str + 2L damage), Flechette Launcher (6L damage w/AP 4, Range 50, RoF 5 [Bursts/FA], Magazine 200)
Paradox: 2

Mark II

The first fully electrically powered HITMark, the Mark II was a significant leap in capability and complexity.

Introduced: 1860

Obsolete: 1900

Power Source: High-density lead-acid battery

Musculature: Electrical servomotors

Armor: Solid-cast Primium Plating

Cognitive Core: Analog Computer

Special Rules:

Steady Grasp: The Mark I has +1 Dexterity for melee and ranged attacks.

Mark III

The Mark III is the first of the 'modern' HITMarks. Still fully robotic and unconcealable IIIs are still used as low-priority security units, and the IIIB upgrade variants are still employed on operations today.

Mark IV

Many people confuse Mark IVs and Mark Vs. The difference is, the Mark IV is built on a (generally) willing human donor, while the Mark V is a fully artificial construct. This gives Mark IVs a much broader range of attributes, makes them much better-suited for infiltration missions and long-term operations, and means that they're often more skilled and more capable. On the flipside they're also much rarer. Often a unenlightened HITMark assault is a few Mark Vs led by a Mark IV.

Introduced: 1940

Obsolete: Never

Power Source: Bioelectrical

Musculature: Human muscle tissue + joint motors

Armor: Subdermal primium plating

Cognitive Core: Augmented Human Brain

Special Rules:

All Too Human: Mark IVs behave just like human beings, which makes them vulnerable to things like 'mind control', 'defecting', and 'being possessed by horrible alien spirits'. On the flipside it gives them a level of lateral thinking and unpredictability all other HITMarks lack.

Mark V

The most well-known HITMark version, the Mark V is by far the most common HITmark design currently used, with a balance of lethality, subtlety, maintenance requirements, and cost.

Introduced: 1960

Obsolete: Never

Power Source: Hydrogen fuel cell

Musculature: Silicone artificial actuators

Armor: Primium endoskeleton w/subdermal polymer plates

Cognitive Core: Neural Network

Special Rules:

Mark V Security Variant

The exponentially increasing cost of the Mark V program led to Syndicate Financiers going to the Biotechnicians and asking for a low-cost alternative to the full-up Mark V, as there were a lot of Technocratic operations which rated a bit more protection than sleepers but didn't rate full-spec Mark Vs. As a bonus, they wanted a design that was lower-maintenance and significantly more subtle.

Mark VI

Yeah that's about right. With various Etherite mad science projects running around, the Garou still as nasty as ever, and the Ascension War in full swing, Iteration X got together and decided to make themselves a weapon to reassert dominance in the Umbra by kicking in the face of everything inside it. A single Mark VI costs almost as much as a small Void Engineer battleship or Spirit Nuke but is undeniably at least as effective as either, and causes slightly less collateral damage. Slightly.

Introduced: 1998

Obsolete: None

Power Source: Miniaturized Hyperfusion Reactor

Musculature: Carbon Nanotube

Armor: Primium-Infused Reactive Ceramic Armor

Cognitive Core: Acausal Hypercomputer

Special Rules:

Finicky: The Mark VI requires a significant and dedicated support bay to deploy, and requires several hours to warm up. Not exactly a weapon you can use without significant preparation.

MAXIMUM STRENGTH: The Mark VI gains 5 automatic successes on all Strength rolls (like a vampire with Potence 5).

MAXIMUM SPEED: The Mark VI has an additional 5 extra actions. Like a vampire with Celerity... yeah, okay look it can murder a minmaxed combat monkey vampire. Just deal with it.

Self-Destruct: Because of how powerful a Mark VI is, when killed they immediately self-destruct, vaporizing their bodies and dealing 10A damage to everyone in the area. This damage may not be soaked without Forces 4.

Strength 6 [5]/Dexterity 8/Stamina 6
Charisma 2/Manipulation 2/Appearance 3-5
Perception 4/Intelligence 2/Wits 6
Important Abilities

Alertness 3

Awareness 2

Athletics 4

Brawl 4

Dodge 3

Melee 4

Firearms/Energy Weapons/Heavy Weapons 4

Armor 4H (6d [4] total soak), 5d Primium Countermagic
Health Levels: -0/-0/-0/-0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-5/Disabled/Destroyed
Inbuilt Weapons: RAPTOR Mk II Vibroblades (Str + 4A damage, enemy soaks at +3 difficulty), Fusion Lance (Arete 6 Forces 3/Prime 2 aggravated damage)
Paradox: 10
Special Effects: "Arete" 5, Forces 1/Life 1 multispectral vision, Spirit 2 Phase Generator (can touch spirits), Prime 3 Countermagic Field