Standard Infantry Equipment
Chinese and Russian Small Arms and Equipment
QLB-85 'Helix' Assault Cannon
The 'Helix' is designed for full conversion cyborg bodies or battlesuits, as even a mobility-suited soldier risks injury trying to fire the heavy, 32 kilogram weapon. Fed from a pair of 45-round helical magazines and using a revolver-cannon system to maintain a high rate of fire for effective burst fire, the 'Helix' fires 32 x 70mm projectiles using a magnetic launch system. Most soldiers load it with a combination of smart gyrojet and thermobaric ammunition for a combination of fire support and all-range firepower. Equipped with a smartlink, the Helix is an advanced and incredibly powerful weapon which has seen service with both the PLA, many expanse powers, and ZOCU.
GSh-151 Support Machine Gun
Unlike the Helix, which generally fires shaped-charge rounds, the GSh-151 fires 13mm penetrators at hypersonic velocities. Due to barrel strain from its high rate of fire, the GSh-151 is a quad barreled rotary design, allowing it to hose down an entire area with hundreds of its 13mm penetrators in a few seconds. Despite its incredible rate of fire, though, the GSh-151 is capable of surprising precision, effective on single-shot or four round burst against targets even at extreme range. However, owing to its high muzzle velocity, even with its rotary design it can overheat if not metered very well, and indiscriminate fire risks completely draining the weapon powerpack. Nevertheless, the GSh-151 is a tried and tested support weapon, having been heavily used by ZOCU battlesuits in the war. Even with ZOCU building its own assault cannons, there are many ZOCU veterans who prefer the GSh-151, especially with an upgraded electronic sight and recently designed smart ammunition, over the Harawayian SW-92 or the New Mercian Type 142.
Type 80 Assault Rifle
China's premier infantry weapon, the Type 80 was only deployed en masse before the start of the ZOCU-Core war, and has shown some of the optimizations which have come along with it. Firing a 5mm penetrator round or the common 32 x 70mm projectile from the now-ubiquitious "adaptive barrel" that allows easy use of multicaliber magazines, the Type 80 was optimized primarily for deployment against rebellions, insurgencies, and other low intensity warfare.
Hong Jian (HJ) 21 Man Portable Anti-tank/Anti-mecha missile
The HJ-21 is the latest in a long line of successful Chinese anti-tank guided missiles. It features a combination of infra-red, millimeter wave radar, home-on-jam and optical tracking modes, of which the first three are fire-and-forget modes. In optical tracking mode, it rides a laser beam to the target, which is provided either by the command launch unit or a compatible laser designator signal chosen by the firer. The missile has a top speed of Mach 0.9 can also be programmed for a variety of terminal maneuvers, including a "pop-up" maneuver to attack the target's top armour directly, or evasive maneuvers to avoid active defenses. It also features a "ground skimming" mode during the early stages of flight to minimize detection time. It features a tandem shaped micro-fusion/thermobaric warhead, giving it a firepower second only to Kismet's PIG-2. The combined launcher-control unit weighs a hefty 20 kilos, limiting the typical gunner-loader-helper team to a mere four missiles.
QLB-86 Squad Automatic Weapon
The QLB-86 is the smaller cousin of the Helix, and fires the same ammo as its larger counterpart. It was made as a response to the increasingly large numbers of armour suited infantry, and the perceived lack of lethality of a mere light machine gun in the SAW role. It is a very simple weapon, built out of lightweight materials to improve ammo capacity, featuring a twenty round drum typically filled with a mix of HEDP for anti-infantry work with a small number of smart gyrojet rounds for harder, or more elusive targets. Unlike its larger relative, it can only has a semi-automatic mode, but due to its lack of stabilizers other than a deployable bipod and a very limited ammunition supply automatic fire would be practically impossible to handle anyway. There are four SAW gunners per squad, replacing the two grenadiers typically found in most other militaries.
Uralvagonzavod T-12 Battlesuit
The T-12 is an ugly, blocky brick of a battlesuit emphasizing cost-effectiveness and ease of mass production over fancy tricks. Its ECM suite, sensors, and musculature are nothing special, and it is often considered to be somewhat physically weak due to its frame being overweight compared to the majority of other battlesuits. The extra mass, though, goes into additional defensive systems, including explosive reactive armor tiling to defeat EFP penetrators, an ablative anti-energy weapon layer, and heavy DU sheeting to prevent kinetic penetrators from causing severe damage, as well as multiple backup sensors and battery packs, a heavily armored pilot casing, and protected storage positions for spare ammunition. Commonly armed with a GSh-151 support machine gun, as well as a vibroknife, the T-12 is a overall solid battlesuit design.
EU Small Arms and Equipment
Heckler und Koch G94
The standardized infantry rifle of the EU, the G94 is the baseline to which most infantry rifles are compared. With a coilgun capable of firing various 25mm gyrockets from a 10-round magazine or multiple subcaliber penetrators, as well as an excellent electronic sight and multiple mounting rails for various components, the G94 has only become more popular after the end of the war, and the EU paratrooper holding a G94 is one of the most recognizable sights for the ZOCU war. Uniquely unlike most rifles, the pure KE component was intended to be functional against infantry armor, increasing the weapon's bulk and mass, but its ability to penetrate ZOCU infantry armor on extremity hits made it a much-loved part of the EU arsenal.
Heckler und Koch MG12
The H&K MG12 uses the 25mm coilgun of the G94, adapting it to sustained fire and a belt feed. Either fired from a bipod or from a gyrostabilized brace, the MG12 has aim tracking features that ensure accuracy in any environment. Although the program was threatened with cancellation in 2180 due to cost overruns and its high unit cost compared to its predecessor, the FN EMAG, the design's combat record in the early days of the New Mercian ground conflict quickly changed the minds of many towards its adoption.
Rheinmetall EM14 Thor Assault Cannon
The Rheinmetall Thor is a massive battlesuit-portable antimateriel cannon, massing at 35 kilograns and firing a 15mm depleted uranium penetrator at 4 kilometers a second. Equipped with a high power electronic sight and aim compensation programs that see little use due to the round's mass and velocity, the Thor's punishing recoil and high power drain make it a specialist weapon-but for all that, it was more than effective against the relatively thin armor of ZOCU early-war tanks at any angle save the front, yet was still accurate enough to be used as an antipersonnel solution. Stories of Gerhardt Rosenbaum, an EU sniper who used the Thor as a sniper weapon, have already become fixed in the public's eye-including stories of his exploits using a C3 link and disposable UAVs to, in one case, kill a New Mercian infantry commander by shooting through two sides of a solid concrete building.
Benelli M12 CAWS
A shotgun/grenade launcher equivalent, the Benelli M12 is a "snub cannon", a weapon that fires large, relatively low-velocity 40mm projectiles with low effective range but high impact power and low recoil. Furthermore the low muzzle velocity also allows a shorter overall weapon, making the M12 effective in close quarters. Standard loads for the M12 use an advanced shaped charge which focuses 95% of the explosive energy into the target, making the lethal radius minimal to even unarmored users. Other loads include thermobaric grenades, camera rounds, micro-recon vehicles, ECM rounds, flashbang, antipersonnel foam, and chemical.
Nexter FA F40 Designated Marksman Rifle
A competing design for the standardized EU infantry rifle, the French F40 was designed in a much older fashion, using a coilgun firing 13mm gyrojet penetrators from a fixed barrel, reducing adaptive characteristics for a moderate cost savings and accuracy increase. The low-caliber gyrocs it fired were insufficient to carry significant explosive payload, but they could be accelerated to a potent velocity which allowed them to pierce most infantry armors of the ZOCU-Core War. Carrying a 20 round magazine of penetrators, the FA F40 lost the 2170 competition to the G94, but was adopted by the EU as a designated marksman rifle owing to its high accuracy (in part due to its semi-guided munitions) and stopping power.
MBDA Frion IIC
The EU's predominant disposable infantry rocket launcher, the Frion IIC is a mere 2.8 kilograms, nearly half a kilo lighter than its predecessor. Despite that, the warhead, anti-ECCM systems, and evasion subroutines are all superior, its only shortcoming being its slightly reduced range, due to the use of a two-stage rocket motor, a first stage that burns out extremely quickly and a second stage which activates in its terminal seeking mode. The Frion comes in several varieties, including explosively forged penetrator, fragmentation, HEDP, and thermobaric, and although somewhat shorter-ranged and less powerful than the New Mercian Mk. 12, was slightly more agile and had a better ECCM system, decreasing its vulnerability to enemy countermeasures.
Cuirasse De Combat
Possibly the best standardized infantry protective system fielded in the ZOCU war, the Cuirasse De Combat was instrumental in many of the surprising ground victories of the EU forces, matching their superior armor and weapons to ZOCU's transgenic supersoldiers. Like most infantry combat designs, the Cuirasse was modular, hard plates over a mobility suit. What was revolutionary was the adaptive exoskeleton, which was flexible under low strain and rigid under high strain, giving an armored EU soldier full mobility. In addition to this, the Cuirasse was built with high-efficiency artificial myomer instead of the standard design, sacrificing a degree of strength for superior combat endurance. Although this was the subject of complaints, EU experience on New Mercia quickly silenced them, as in many long battles, while the enemy transgenics were moving their armor suits sluggishly under their personal muscle power or discarding them entirely, the EU soldiers were still capable of using their armor's full capabilities. It is no wonder that the ZOCU Achilleus was at least partially based on developments pioneered by the EU's design.
Independent Powers' Small arms and Equipment
Avalon Armaments M72
Much like Kalashnikov was synonymous with "cheap" in the late 20th and mid-to-early 21st centuries, the M72 has become the weapon most commonly used by space pirates, poor rim worlds, and criminals with black market connections. Originally designed as a low-cost military solution for Valera's budding military, the M72 was too primitive to get much headway, despite its low cost. However, for worlds which would make up the League or other poor rim worlds, the design was excellent. Low-maintenance, still a credible threat, and easily reverse engineerable, the design was bought by several powers, and soon after knockoff copies were found just about everywhere. Using a 30 round magazine of 6.8mm AP rounds fired from a coilgun, as well as a single-shot breech-loading 35mm gyrojet launcher, the M72 is powerful but heavy, somewhat inaccurate, and lacks ammunition capacity.
Kismet Techsystems PIG-2
Arguably the most lethal manpack weapon outside of a nuclear grenade, the Kismet Techsystems Plasma Infantry Gun-2 is one of the few manportable energy weapons to see service outside of special forces. A heavy, cumbersome and entirely unsubtle weapon, it uses an array of augmented delta-fusors to generate a unidrectional fusion explosion capable of destroying an entire building, earning it the alternative nickname 'Blockbuster'. Unsurprisingly, weight and backsplash keep it solely in the hands of powersuited infantry.
Principle Armory L-13/E
The fifth model in the venerable L-13 line of infantry-scale laser arms, the L-13/E is still in production despite new models being designed. The Enumerator is a response to the call for simplistic weaponry in the Sphere for those less able to arm themselves through their own means. A single-stage solid-state lasing medium is the heart of the weapon, and is designed to be removed and replaced to ease maintenance on the weapon. Due to its solid-state nature, the L-13/E has no moving parts, and is purported to be the most reliable weapon available to independent buyers. It is powered by standardized block energy cells and can be connected to larger power supplies or even generators provided the proper adapters are available. What the L-13/E lacks in shear hitting power, it makes up in a merciless rate of fire. While it has never been seen, Principle Armory claims the the L-13/E can sustain a rate of fire capable of causing catastrophic failure within the lasing medium if hooked up to a substantial power supply.
League Small arms and Equipment
Orion's Arms A4 Suppressor
Minowskan infantry tactics mainly center around boarding and zero-G operations, and as such a recoiless weapon was desirable. Designers considered energy weapons but rejected them for being too power hungry, and their heat production, only inconveniencing in atmosphere, could be dangerous in vacuum for a prolonged fight. The A4 Suppressor fires large caliber (~35mm) shaped charge gyrojet munitions, with very little recoil due to the weapon not giving the rounds the "kick" that most other small arms do. This reduces the weapon's range, but its heavy shaped-charge and guidance systems make up for it. Minkowskan space marines have complained about the weapon's low magazine capacity and bulk, but attempts to replace it have stalled in favor of additional warships.
PACT Small Arms and Equipment
EM12 Assault Rifle
The EM12 is logistically designed to be compatible with the EM56, firing the same 25x108mm guided munitions that the EM56 uses as standard as its primary component, with 8, 12, and 15 round magazines available. As a secondary component the EM12 was one of the first adoptees of the adaptive barrel, capable of supporting munitions from 4mm to 25mm. The EM12 was reasonably effective, although not as enthused over as the G94.
EM56 Smartgun
Where the EU's EM weapons technology was some of the most advanced in the Sphere, the PACT had superior electronics and guidance systems to most, and preferred accuracy to hitting power. The EM56 is a gyro-braced, exoskeleton mounted squad support weapon using AI target and tracking acquisition to eliminate targets with a brace of 25mm guided rounds. Although heavy and cumbersome, and sometimes maintenance problematic, veterans of the USMC in the ZOCU war have spoken loudly about its strong points-incredible accuracy, above average ECM resistance, and high rate of fire.
M92 Air Defense and Anti-Tank System
The M92 ADATS is a reloadable missile launcher firing anti-armor and anti-aircraft missiles. Capable of functioning in proximity-kill, top attack, and direct-fire modes, the M92 can effectively engage gunships, low-flying fighters, and armored vehicles. The combination of high velocity, maneuverability, and firepower came as a unwelcome surprise for ZOCU mobile suit operators, which the M92 was almost optimal against. However it was not without its problems-mainly that each individual reload was heavy and bulky and the weapon's sight was sometimes slow to acquire targets.
Alliant-Winchester Weaponized Infantry Support Platform
The Alliant-Winchester WISP is a medium-size infantry support drone, generally directly controlled by a heavy weapons unit or given semi-autonomous directives. Designed around a powerful ECM/ECCM suite, the WISP was generally used in the EW role with a boosted transmitter and improved point defense, disrupting ZOCU support drones and UAVs in ground conflicts. However, armed variants also saw service, generally mounting a EM56 or a M92 missile launcher.
Cosby Myomer Research M12 Combat Skin
The replacement for the far-too-expensive M2170, the M12 went "back to basics". Designed with power efficiency and mass production in mind, the M12 had few revolutionary systems-it was entirely evolutionary, with a high-density distributed power system, low-draw myomer musculature, and bonded-polymer antiballistic layers. The sole revolutionary feature that the M12 possessed was an emulation of the hardening impact armor the Blackwell competitor had, the myomers instinctively tensing to absorb the impact of a blow, reducing the impact to the user at the cost of reducing maneuverability under fire. Although not as capable as the EU design the M12 is still a solid design. Combined with the standard PACT modular armor suite it was certainly sufficient against the majority of threats PACT forces faced in ground conflict.
Mectron Infantry Synchronous Anti-Armor Accelerator
Forjas Taurus S/A M48 Battlesuit
One of the lightest battlesuits in existence, the Brazilian M48 is also one of the cheapest. Intended as a design so ubiquitious it could be assigned to squads without cost concerns, the M48 is almost ironic compared to its competitors and the rest of PACT's equipment designs, a low-cost, no-frills solution. Armored in polymer laminate with depleted uranium threading, equipped with a simple but high-powered electronics suite and antimissile strips across the torso, back, and limbs, and loaded with second-generation jumpjet systems, the M48 was weaker, slower, and less heavily armed than any of its competitors. It also was cheap, easily repaired, and effective in large numbers-allowing Brazilian forces to deploy all-battlesuited infantry units en masse against ZOCU ground threats.
ZOCU Small Arms and Equipment
Londinium Metals AR-2164
Unlike the other powers, ZOCU did not standardize its infantry weapons, and often ended up with logistical problems in ground battles due to it, which its transgenic soldiers did not fully compensate for. The Londinium Metals AR-2164 was the standard weapon for Londinium and nearby powers at the start of the war, using a fixed 15mm coilgun firing gyrojet, solid, or airbursting rounds. Ammunition Although lightweight, accurate, and low cost, matched against the EU G94 it suffered from inferior range, versatility, and stopping power, a key problem in early ground battles against EU soldiers.
Londinium Metals Spartan Battlesuit
Circa 2168, Londinium government officials put out a contract for a new battlesuit to replace the aging Hoplon design. Londinium Metals, with experience in building the Peltast mobile suit, designed a severely scaled-down version of the Peltast, barely 2.3 meters tall and 280 kilograms, for the Londinium government. Using mobile suit-scale muscle, the Spartan had physical strength and speed that blew all of its competitors out of the water-to the point where a pilot had to wear a modified mobility suit and exoskeleton to prevent injury. Heavily armored and equipped with the then-revolutionary jumpjet system, the Spartan was unmatched in mobility, durability, and firepower. However, the Spartan paid for its incredible strength and amazing speed with low endurance and a high sensors signature. Although mostly phased out towards the end of the Magnate war, advances in power storage technologies allowed it to make a surprising comeback in the middle years of the ZOCU war.
Harawayian IW-45 Standard Individual Weapon
The Harawayian IW-45 was one of the several common infantry weapons that ZOCU used. The IW-45 looked great on paper, with a 8 round capacity for its 30mm munitions, but the weapon's bulk, energy draw, and low magazine capacity made it unpopular with the soldiers in the field. Without the adaptive-barrel systems common to EU and New Mercian designs at that point, it lost some flexibility as well, making its high ammunition mass a real concern. In 2190 Haraway modernized its small arms, going to the IW-48, with the adaptive-barrel and dual-feed systems pioneered by the EU and New Mercian engineers.
New Mercian Royal Arms Type 90 Man Portable Mega-Particle Projection Cannon
The Royal Arms Type 90 was revolutionary when it debuted at the very end of the ZOCU-Core war, a (vaguely) man-portable mega-particle weapon. Massing approximately 45 kilograms with its backpack cyclotron, the cumbersome weapon could barely be used by an armored infantryman, but was effective against many vehicles. Only a handful of prototypes were produced before war's end, but have proven their worth against EU armor, and in one case, a gunship. Updated versions have somewhat reduced its mass and bulk but even the most recent designs still require the backpack cyclotrons.
New Mercian Achilleus Infantry Combat System
The most capable and eventually the common infantry combat armor of the ZOCU powers, the Achilleus class of combat armor was built around standard lines, an armored mobility suit with an exoskeleton that had attachment points for armored plate. Unlike the competing designs, the Achilleus combined mobility, durability, sensors, and cost-effectiveness into a robust package the equal of the EU Cuirasse de combat. Entirely proof against the G94's KE component past 120 meters and capable of deflecting the G94's munitions dispenser on a glancing hit, while equipped with an advanced and powerful sensors suite combining IR, visual, sonar, lidar, and wall-penetrating radar, the Achilleus is still in New Mercian operation even today, only somewhat updated from its original status by the addition of somewhat heavier protection due to the updates on the mobility suit.
Harawayian Yemaya Marine Combat Armour
Despite it’s many positive features, Harawayian marines found the Achilles unsuitable for their needs for a suit of combat armour suitable for amphibious and aquatic operations such as combat around Haraway’s many reef settlements, islands and deep ocean cities. The Yemaya integrates many features from the Achilles but includes an under water mobility pack and a layer of faber produced smart materials designed to harden and resist water pressure as well as provide support for it’s wearer, allowing them to breath normally. The Yemaya has been widely exported to those planets forces that bother to support “wet” Marine units.
Alshain Medical Atlas Mobility Suit
The suit that the Achilleus was built around, the Protector is Alshain Medical's sole military product, the majority of its income at that time being from prosthetics and light exoskeletons for the elderly and infirm. Armored against limited small arms fire (modern pistols or non-AP loads for modern rifles) and capable of reducing the user strain by up to 60% for a 150 kilogram total combat load, as well as fully integrating a nanocomputer network running the latest Redberry Solutions RedOS-M military software suite, the Atlas became a runaway success with the adoption of the Achilleus, to the point where knockoff copies are found in much of the Expanse, identifiable by their distinctive round exoskeleton interface plugs.
Therson Arms Leo Infantry Armor System
Designed in the days of the Breakdown by Hampshire, the Leo was revolutionary when it was constructed, and saw service throughout the Hampshire civil war. At that time, the mobility suit + modular armor paradigm was new and revolutionary, advanced by a several powers roughly independently at the same time. The Leo was upgraded its operational lifespan throughout until the ZOCU war, where Hampshire, mostly sitting out the war, supplied legions of sets to New Mercian soldiers. Unfortunately, the Leo's Jager mechanized mobility suit was vulnerable to critical damage at the joints, as it was only designed to be proof against light shell splinters and chemical-propelled gunfire. Furthermore its battery life was surprisingly short in New Mercian climes, owing to a flaw with the crystal-matrix battery structure, and its hard armor plates were cumbersome and restricting. Its powerful sensors array and ECM systems-superior to most PACT equipment, in fact, proved themselves vulnerable to critical damage as well. After the adoption of the Achilleus the Leo was quietly retired for the superior and more cost-effective solution, a major factor in the 2192 bankruptcy of Therson Arms.
General Ordinance Type 35 Platoon Artillery Gun
From the earliest days of the New Mercian civil war, there were extended periods of fighting in mountainous terrain; the iconic stand of General Grossman and the remains of the pre-war 2nd Corps in the Stirling Pass during the first month of the war being a classic example. It quickly became evident that, while extant self-propelled artillery pieces, while more than capable of operation in the relatively flat areas away from the mountains, were simply unable to keep up with infantry in the rocky environs of the hotly contested mountain passes. The solution was the Type 35, an artillery gun capable of being quickly (dis)assembled into and from easily man portable components, and able to be deployed in an extremely small area. Although shorter ranged and nowhere near as powerful as a conventional self propelled piece, the Type 35 could go places impossible for heavier weapons, and it's light weight and compact component parts enabled a single platoon to carry two guns. A company equipped with Type 35s, therefore, effectively included a six gun battery as an organic component, a significant amplification of firepower. Outside of the mountains, however, the Type 35 proved ineffective, and it thus remained almost entirely assigned to dedicated mountain units.
Harawayian IWP-6 Sabre Hound Combat Drone
Designed to accompany an infantry squad, the Sabre Hound is a squad six legged walker armed with a heavy weapon such as a 35mm gyroc or gauss cannon, a MPB or a 160mm ATGM launcher. The Sabre Hound is a pretty typical support drone, capable of navigating the ground on it’s own. Targets can be designated by squad members, or, unlike most EU or PACT equivalents, engaged autonomously by the Sabre Hound’s AI.