SRW Common Technologies

Technologies

Solar Federation Mobile Suits

The Solar Federation mobile suit force remain the among the most powerful and technologically advanced in human space, despite the recent advances in technology and tactics made by various colonial powers, especially the League of Outer Stars.

Members of INTACT tend to be first in line for the new, top of the line mass production units being produced at the Federation mobile suit plants around Earth, Mars and Jupiter, leaving behind less capable suits after training. Type One Federation Mobile Suits Despite being the mass production suits of the Federation Space Force, Type One mobile suits are still extremely formidable, with performance and features matching many of the limited production units of the last war.

Modern mobile suits are powered by fusion reactors and equipped with advanced anti radar and anti thermal stealth and ECM measures. They are protected by composite armour, and capable of both ranged and close in engagements.

Most mobile suits also have the ability to enter the atmosphere unaided, however leaving an earth type gravity field requires some form of booster, or at least, mid air refuelling. Standard Equipment for Type 1 Sol-Fed Mobile Weapons

Beam Weapons
Replacing the automatic cannons and early rail guns employed by suits at the beginning of the System War, particle beam weapons (just beam weapons in common usage) are a standard feature of all Federation Mobile suits, and offer huge benefits in terms of penetration and damage done over their projectile counter parts.

Close combat beam weapons (called beam sabres) also exist.

Anti Beam Smoke
To defend against the beam weapons they now carry, Sol-Fed mobile suits carry one or more salvo of anti beam smoke grenades, which are capable of defeating most long range particle strikes. Physical attacks or even the more focused, short-range attack of a beam sabre are unaffected by anti beam smoke. Decoys
Pop up decoys are another piece of new defensive technology. They consist of mobile suit shaped gasbags that rapidly inflate after being deployed from a mobile weapon’s counter measure’s pod, designed to confuse an opposing pilot or targeting computer.

Some are also mines.

Mirage field
The most radical new piece of technology fitted to new Sol-Fed suits is the Mirage Field, a remarkable piece of active camouflage technology that renders the suit very hard to detect visually. While an alert pilot may be able to spot the plume from the suit’s engines or the blur of its outline, the Mirage Field gives Sol-Fed pilots a major advantage when bouncing enemy suits.

Type Two Federation Mobile Suits
Type Two Mobile Suits are those used by elite units such as INTACT. While still being effectively mass production, they include many high performance (and expensive) systems that put their over all performance a step ahead of that of a Type One.

This is the level of mobile suit that PCs will be flying at the beginning of the campaign.

Standard Equipment for Type 2 Mobile Suits
(In addition to that carried by type 1s)

Super Capacitor
A super capacitor is fitted close to the mobile suit’s fusion batteries and allows for a short (few minutes long) burst of very high performance, then requires several hours to recharge. Side effects of using a super capacitor include increased engine flame and even a visible red glow across the mecha’s surface as it loses the additional heat generated. This tends to ruin stealth.

Flicker shield
The prototype “hero” units of the last war often carried force field systems designed to deflect incoming energy and kinetic strikes. These force field units are expensive in both energy and manufacture, far too expensive for a general production unit. Rather, type 2 mobile suits are fitted with flicker shields, which stay on line for only an instant at a time when they detect an incoming attack.

This flicker allows for a far more efficient use of energy and a far cheaper unit, however it cannot practically defeat long lasting effects or multiple attacks hitting almost (but not quiet) at the same time.

Semi autonomous bits
Autonomous weapons (“bits”) were widely used by elite units in the System War, and it’s no surprise they’re being used on Sol-Fed elite suits. Semi autonomous bits lack the very expensive independent tracking and Aleph controls of the very best “bits” but they’re still formidable, aiding a mobile suit on both offence and defence.

Specialist Equipment (Feel free to create your own)

Aleph Matrix
Aleph Matrix cockpits are less expensive and capable than some, more elaborate booster arrangements but they are cheap enough to be used by any capable enough pilot, and add greatly to a mecha’s responsiveness, ease of control and ability to rapidly transit between manoeuvres

Blood Curtain ECM
The Blood Curtain is an unsubtle form of countermeasure, working by flooding local space with a massive number of energised particles, blinding most forms of radar, thermal and even lidar or sight based sensors, which are unable to see through the bright red mist it generates.

Blood Curtain units are generally deployed ahead of an assault to blanket an area over the target with particles to allow other strike craft to move in unimpeded.