Weapons of the Magnate War

The Magnate Continuum

Army

Magnate Small Arms

Delten

Due to the nature of the citizens of Delten, Deltenian weaponry focused on simplistic form and effective results. As such, any Deltenian shore party was issued the standard automatic anti-personal railgun, AAPR, and a standard issue snub-nosed railpistol which was only effective at short ranges.

Better suited for aerospace operations, Deltenians stayed in or near the major jumpships that were the lifeblood of the war. They were seen in any fleet or aerial engagement, but shore parties were only seen as added security during landing operations of the dropships or major resupply events.

Dogma

Expendable supersoldiers with Chlorine Trifluoride sprayers.

Hyperborea

Killing people is inhumane and inefficient, so we'll horribly maim them instead.

The Eternal Dawn

Eternal Dawn small arms technologies were based on three principles: firstly, their highly enhanced soldiers could carry and effectively heft significantly heavier weapons than the norm, and secondly, they would often have light infantry and light-to-medium armor facing significantly larger numbers of enemies which ranged from armored vehicles to lightly armed and poorly armored militia. Given this, Dawn forces needed infantry weapons capable of engaging a multitude of targets efficiently, ranging from light armored vehicles to battle-armored infantry to lightly armored militia.

Templars and VIIs alike carried the M32 assault weapon, which although significantly heavier than most standard rifles (over 12kg fully loaded) was designed specifically for their war. Unlike the weapons used by other powers, the Dawn (and the Magnates in general) were not exclusively or even mostly facing battle-armored infantry, and similarly could often count on the League building cheap lightly armored vehicles as a solution to Magnate infantry superiority, which a normal payload rifle would be marginal against. Magnate ground forces required a weapon capable of damaging or incapacitating vehicles with armor resistant to standard payload rifle calibers, while maintaining enough ammunition capacity for suppressive fire and the elimination of lightly armored targets. Varying weapons systems resulted from this set of requirements.

As a result, the Dawn combined a 30mm coilgun launching dual-purpose explosive rounds from a 6-shot magazine, and a 6mm flechette coilgun. The 6mm coilgun used twin 50-round magazines, one of which was often sintering "shredder" ammunition for light armor and the other one jacketed tungsten-alloy penetrators for soldiers wearing light unpowered armor, semi-common in the early days of the Magnate War. To improve stopping power further, both were augmented with Compound R8, a powerful incendiary which could burn even when inside a human body. The M32's wounds were uniquely visible for their combination of penetration and incendiary effect, and resulted in League soldiers calling the weapon the "Firedrake".

Series VII Replicant

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Series VII Combat Replicant, Eternal Dawn model, in experimental-type coloration. Production models would be equipped with a load-bearing vest and additional equipment pouches.

Epithets: Meatbots, Windups, Dregs
Invented by the Eternal Dawn and proliferated through most of the Magnate Continuum as a solution to the League's larger size, Series VII Replicants were barely-sapient engineered weapons given their superlative combat skill via a series of advanced computer implants. These combinations of biotechnological might and cybernetic enhancement were powerful combatants, with superlative combat skill and an instinctual mastery of small-unit tactics. Their combat chatter is clipped and rapid, with unit orders and status reports generally given in one-word answers. Series VIIs were produced in large numbers throughout the war and also given various types of equipment and armoring, although all armor had to be modified somewhat to interface with the Series VII's physiology. The most common variants in the war, however, were the Eternal Dawn "standard" variant.

Their initial deployment came as a severe shock to the League and ZOCU forces who, although familiar with Magnate supersoldiers, did not expect the sheer number of VIIs to be deployed, nor did they anticipate their idiot-savant battlefield ability. However, after a few battles were won at great cost in the early stages of the deployment, ZOCU and League generals quickly realized there was a fixed pattern in their movements, a lack of improvisation that was created by their inflexibility. This information, along with counterweapons for the prevalence of grossly superhuman light infantry being put into service, turned VIIs into a moderate threat instead of a war-winning superweapon, and then further analysis of VII communications and tactical patterns turned them into a joke.

The Eternal Dawn response was to create and deploy the Series VIII, or Series VII Officer Variant, a fully sapient and intelligent version which could monitor and manage the powerful but inflexible Replicas on a small-unit level. This countered the cracking of the VII tactical programming to a great degree, but the damage had already been done and the VII although still a potent force throughout the war was never the game-changing machine the Eternal Dawn freethinkers believed it would be.














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Ships

The "Mothership"

The legendary warship that plagued the League worlds at the height of the War in Space, from 2172 through 2177. It prowled the uncharted systems between League and Magnate-held worlds, devouring every ship that crossed its path. A chance recovery of a distress beacon following the disappearance of Force 12 in UNSO-2822 confirmed the exitence of a ship of titanic proportions and firepower to match. Greater than any other known League or Magnate vessel, only one ship of this class is thought to have existed, and it was never a party in any large-scale battle of the Magnate Wars. Even so it was a source of fear and frustration for the League powers, who could not answer who could have built such a ship, how, or if there would be more. Of the League powers, only one vessel is known to have survived an encounter with the Magnate 'Mothership', at its last known location in 2177. It has not been seen since.

Zodiac Outworld Colony Union

Craft

OMF-04 Peltast Mobile Suit

This page's version focusing more on the machine's role in fighting the magnates and the concept of humanoid combat frames in general.

The Expanse League

Misc/Unknown

OMF-04 Peltast Mobile Suit

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Peltast armed with Londenium Metals Mk-11 Railgun

Stats

Speed: 7

Agility: 8

Evasion: 6

Armor: 9

Hits: 4

Excess Power: 5

External Carriage: 12 Spaces

Fixed Equipment:

1 Plasma Lance

Standard loadout:

1 Automatic Railgun (8 spaces, 2 power)

1 Strike Missile (2 spaces)

Ge-02 Lambert Combat Frame
Stats

Speed: 7

Agility: 6

Evasion: 6

Armor: 12

Hits: 4

Excess Power: 4

External Carriage: 12 Spaces

Standard loadout:

1 Automatic Railgun (8 spaces, 2 power)

1 Strike Missile (2 spaces)

1 Alpha Edge Sword (2 spaces)

F-76 Mustang III Aerospace Fighter
[1]
Stats

Speed: 12

Agility: 10

Evasion: 7

Armor: 0

Hits: 4

Excess Power: 4

External Carriage: 8

Fixed Equipment:

Gatling CIWS (2 Space)

Standard loadout:

4 x Anti-Air Missiles (8 Space)

Ships

League Transport Fleet

Pilkington Class Cargo Liner

Before the EU's catapult line was constructed, the EU arm was bound together from by the venerable Pilkington class liners. Unfortunately for the dedicated captains, the ship's idiosyncratic first-generation drive configuration was not suited for interfacing with catapult launch systems, and the Pilkingtons were pushed further and further out, and largely consigned to mouldering in inner-fringe Rim states and the Sea of Solomon. This was to prove the League's salvation. The same nonstandard FTL architecture was unusually reliable in the ravages of the breakdown and the antiquated freighters were refurbished, armoured and modified for military logistics in the desperate rush to defend against the Magnates.

Teamster Module Conveyor

The Second Space Age saw the need to move large and varied cargos to the new (and old) colonies, and the developed American space industry was quick to answer the call with the now-iconic Teamster. By 2110 its skeletal 'ribcage' design was well-known across human space from the enormous fleet that carried supplies, equipment, gunboats and colonists out to the Expanse and beyond. The cargo pod scale it established remains the standard today. More modern jumpdrive designs left the original Teamsters behind from the 2110s onwards, but the solid and reliable craft were never truly abandoned and remained common in the Expanse.

When battle was joined on the League frontline their small stock of Teamsters were pressed into service once more to ferry landing barges and gunboats to the front. They were far outnumbered by the Pilkingtons, but were superior at moving gunboats and other complete craft to the clumsy freighter conversions. The key moment came in 2175, when League diplomats at Londenium managed to secure the purchase of almost all of ZOCU's mothballed Teamsters, multiplying the alliance's spacelift at a stroke and allowing dozens of gunboats to be brought to the front in single trips.

Pangu Megafreighter

The Chinese Pangu 'mega-freighter' was one of the first truly large ships to be sent out into the abyss of space, and was instrumental in building the foundations of China's golden age. The colossal craft could move tens of thousands of people at a stroke to the colonies, or supplies and equipment to match. Like all other craft of that era however, they found themselves left behind by the march of progress, and would have passed without incident into history were it not for the most controversial action of the Magnate war.

The League obtained some through skullduggery awaiting definition.

Canopus Class System Defense Ship

In 2101 the European Union's orbital shipyards completed work on the System Defense Ship Canopus, the first of a powerful new class of warships slated for service both in Sol and out on the frontier. The Canopus was at the time the largest warship ever built by humanity, with a for the time heavily armored two hundred meter long hull and a powerful arsenal of electromotive artillery. For more peace minded citizens of the EU it quickly became a symbol of what they saw as their Union following a dangerous path toward bringing militarism to the stars. But in spite of vocal protests from opponents in the European Parliament and elsewhere further warships were produced and the Canopus Class became the mainstay of the newly formed Deep Space Fleet for over two decades.

Following the introduction of the American MacArthur Class and even more so after the battles at Eridanus, it became clear to the DSF's leadership that the Canopus was no longer sufficient for the duties it faced. By 2120 the Canopus Class was already in the process of being phased out in favor of newly built and considerably more powerful Drake Class Battleships. The loss of the Theresa and its escorts during the disastrous First Epsilon Virginis Encounter in 2122 only served to confirm the Admiralty's misgivings about their aging first generation capital ships.

But while the Canopus Class was removed from service with the DSF, the remaining ships quickly were pressed back into service elsewhere. Although no they were longer deemed suitable for use by its own military, the EU found that the remaining Canopus Class ships were admirably suited for any number of remote frontier navies without either shipbuilding capabilities or technical knowhow. A number of EU trained local militias were sold System Defense Ships before the breakdown cut communications between the EU Arm and the far frontier. Most notably, a number of these ships were present in varying states of disrepair in the Sarreva system at the opening of the Magnate War. Refitted and sent into action against the invaders, they proved to be far more of a success for the League than they ever were for their original builders.

Civilian Conversion Warships

The early years of the Magnate wars were marked by the unprecedented large-scale use of converted civilian ships in League military fleets. These came in two known classes: armed freighters, nicknamed Q-ships, and converted bulk carriers called One-Shot Wonders. Q-Ships were actually rather common in the Rim prior to the Breakdown, on account of large-scale piracy and rogue drone attacks. Even unarmed freighters in the Rim tended to be overbuilt and easily converted to mount turreted weapons, armour and sometimes scattering shield systems. Newer and larger industrial ships weren't as sturdily built, and were unable to be significantly modified. Instead they were hastily converted into missile carriers, replacing cargo bays with banks of single-shot missile launchers that could be fired in the broadside. Sometimes completely unarmoured, these ships tended only to remain in a battle long enough to unload their complement of torpedoes or missiles. Uniquely able to deliver an overwhelming barrage of fire, it became a point of pride amongst skippers to see who had the guts to stay engaged long enough to guide these powder kegs to where their firepower would be best used.

Q-ships tended to be vastly more survivable craft in that they were smaller, tougher and less of a priority target. Many of those in service during the Magnate Wars still roam the Rim as commercial vessels, where their arms and armour remain a highly prized asset in deterring pirates. Converted bulk carriers, on the other hand, suffered heavy casualties in engagements as their poorly protected missile banks were easily detonated by a penetrating hit. Being extremely cheap to convert and maintain, they were more than numerous enough to be a mainstay of the fleets for years, before finally being retired back to their civilian duties to support the construction of the purpose-built warships that replaced them.