From: chedberg@hamp.hampshire.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.cyber
Subject: Repost: The Military Hardware Guide O' Doom
Date: 5 Oct 92 14:59:09 GMT
Organization: Hampshire College
Archive-Name: rgc719

Here it is, folks. This is the Military's hardware (note I did _not_ say the
U.S.!) for 2020. It is fatal, it is evil, it is scary. GM's personal warning: 
Do _Not_ let your players have this shit! Otherwise, have fun. Further, if you
do not like it, mail replies to me personally, as we've already had a critique
of the thing's effects on game balance here over the summer. Any questions can
be adressed to me personally as well. 

						-Goodwrench

The Military Hardware Guide:

     The U.S. military in my realities is really, really scary.
They are one of the most powerful (and covert) forces around
since the Mafia went legit. When the Military gets on your butt,
you should (even today) be very, very afraid. The way I've laid
them out, they gave the control of small-unit urban commando
tactics over to the C.I.A. The Special Forces are now essentially
controlled by both organizations, but most used by the C.I.A. The
Military is no longer interested in small, politically clean
operations. When they actually employ armed force instead of 
political strong-arm, they work like Hammer's Slammers, Panzers
and all.
     Thus, be warned. When you call them in, they don't worry
about the bill or the damages, or the casualties. They just fix
the problem. Period.
      This is stuff that is to normal CP combat what Ravenloft
and the Dark Suns are to ADND. I have worked out an apropos
morale check system. Some of the PCs in one of my games will
never, _never_ be the same psychologically. These things can have
the same effect on people as the flamethrower did on the first
units it was fielded against.
     One way or another, ask and ye shall receive.


The Gandell Sniper Rifle:
     The Gandell is a rifle built to be a sniper's wet dream. It
fires a 50 caliber shell, about the heaviest thing that a lone
man can carry. It is perfectly balanced, smart-chipped (with COT
scope) from the factory, and safety-chipped. It holds a clip with
eight shells, and has only about six moving parts. It is also
just under two meters long. 
     The Gandell is The Military's way of telling you you've made
it in the world of sniping. When you're given a Gandell, you know
you're at the top. The men who carry them are among the foremost
marksmen of the world, (akin to the Quarter-Inch Club today) with
rifle skill up around +8 to +10. These guys get called in when
The Military want to make sure somebody does not get away. And
this is the gun they use:

Statistics:

ROF: 1 (2 if _extremely_well braced. The first shot should have
     been enough. )
ACC: +2 (not counting the bonuses from the cyberscoping. Total
     bonus is +7)
Damage: 9d6
Clip: 8

Special Features:
     Laser-assisted COT cyperscope; Gun gives visual output from
the COT rangefinder, I.E. Range to target, shot flight time, and
also an estimate of penetration in inches of Kevlar at the other
end given current baromatric pressure.
     Gun has only about six moving parts, and is thus Very
Reliable. It is sealed against the environment and is waterproof
to up to 20 meters. 
     Naturally, the weapon is flash and noise supressed. It is
actually designed not to _supress_ its firing noise, but to
_displace_ its apparent source. 

Needless to say, while this is the munchkin item from hell, it
will be a bit tough to get it out of the hands of the guy who
already owns it. Like the katana in ADND, many have tried, but...

Berserker Bricks

     One of the Military's big projects for a long time now has
been this: How in the heck do we reclaim the funds that have been
wasted on a specialist soldier or Special Forces op who goes
cyberpsycho? Now, finally, there's an answer to that question. We
take the best of them, soup them up still further until they look
like a cross between Robocop Two and a Powerloader, implant a
centrocortical remote-controlled off-switch, and then use them as
a distraction.
     The standard procedure is this: Locate a large den of
terrorists,smugglers, boosters, or other minor annoyances. Get a
good satellite picture going of the site for a preliminary
buildup of forces. Then, bring in a large cargo aircraft. Have it
overfly the site and drop off pairs of packages. Each pair
contains a large dose of a mixture of blind gas/acrolein
(mace)/vomit gas, smoke, and a wide-band ecm package in one
container (chaos in a can), and in the other is a brick. The two
packages are slowed by drogue chutes as they come in towards the
ground, but they still make a loud crash, and also a big dent in
anything they hit. As soon as they hit, the two packages dump
their contents, and the brick is activated. Imagine, now, what
would happen if you suddenly released our old friend
Mister-20mm-Cannons-For-Arms in a crowded Booster hideout.
Remember the scenes of the future from Terminator 1/2? People
begin to panic when they realize that they can't see, their
friends are busy puking up their lungs, and the lump over there
has taken all of their heaviest hits, and is still coming. They
begin to run. As soon as they clear the cloud, the military
snipers outside (many of whom will be using the Gandell 50 Sniper
rifle) begin to pick them off. As soon as nothing is moving any
more, the guys in the cargo plane shut down the brick's motor
functions, and the big boys pack up and go home.  GM's note:
Obviously, if you want to simply teach the players who _not_ to
mess with, there are always means to escape this sort of trap.
They can bail down a handy manhole, play dead until the Military
boys clean up and leave, or _try_ to surrender. Always make sure
that the thoughtful player can find a way out, unless it's part
of the plan that they're all supposed to die.
     Statistics: The standard Brick has an INT of about 8-9, an
MA of 8-, and REF and BOD scores of at _least_ 8. Remember, these
guys used to be the best. In terms of cyberware, empathy is no
longer a problem. These guys don't have any. Put in whatever you
want. Although a template for an average Brick is given below,
you may be looking for something different, like a stealthy guy.
     Skills: Choose your ten or so favorite maim-and-mayhem
skills and jack them to  at least +7, with a combat sense of +8
or better. Like we said, they were the best.


Standard Physical Platform:

Optical: Infrared, UV, microwave, and radio tracking.  

Audio: Enhanced Hearing, Radio Scanning, Sonar, and passive radar
tracking. *Note: It is very common for each Brick to have 1+
Rabbit Ear attachments (see 2020 cyberware rules).

Armor: A full-body shell of Chobbham and mixed-composite ceramic
armor, similar to that used on APCs in development today.
Effective all-body SP: 60.

Weapons options:

1) .50 Caliber short-range tribarrel cannon, arm or shoulder:

ROF: 10
ACC: 0
Damage: 10d6
Clip: 50 (in a drum)


2) 20mm anti-vehicle gun, arm or shoulder:

ROF: 1
ACC: +1
Damage: 10d10
Clip: 16


3) Micro-missile pod, hip:

ROF 1-6
ACC: As cyberware missile launcher (smart seeker) in 2020
handbook
Damage: 6d6
Clip: 6


The Juggernaut:

     There comes a day when people get tired of coping with an
annoying problem and decide to do away with it for once and for
all. The Military, while always having a reluctant respect for
boostergangs, finally decided that the Punknaught was too much of
an affront to allow. To that end, they out-monstered the thing.
To whit, the Juggernaut. Eighty tons of angry, shrieking ducted
turbojets. It is larger than the average punknaught, and more
manouverable than those its size. It is also far, far and away
better armored and armed, more professionally built, and on top
of all that: It has afterburners.
     The basic juggernaut has only one section about the size of
a large bus, but one-and-a-half lanes wide. With its rounded prow
and smoothed sides, it looks like a boat, but it was designed for
open fields and (in certain situations) for leading urban
assaults. It can only cross water on afterburner, which makes it
an awkward vehicle to steer (eighty tons at over 200 kph is _un_-
fun!). At lower speeds, it makes use of forward thrust vectoring
and dynamic instability to make it cruelly agile in open areas.
Its armor will withstand punishment from anything up to the guns
of main battle tanks and large tank-killer missles. Its firepower
is overwhelming in a city street, and to be avoided anywhere
else.

Statistics:

Weapons loadout: Six Pilum point-defense and anti-soft-target
weapon positions; one VLDFAA missile system, hull-mounted anti-
infantry mines (claymores), and a turret-mounted 120mm hard-
target and submunition-launching battle cannon.

Pilum:
     The Pilum is a device very similar to the point-defense
system in the Chromebook. They are self-contained 9mm longnose
vulcan weapons with a staggering rate of fire. Each one has its
own firing mechanism and magazine, which means that each must be
disabled separately. It can perform as an anti-missile shield
against objects as small as an RPG, and can even (60%) backplot
the missile's trajectory to its source and then eliminate the
source. The units are all slaved to a single gunner whose purpose
is simply to designate which targets require a response. He has
360-degree vision and a special cyberoptical link allowing him to
make use of this. He needs only highlight the target and the
mounts will shift their fields of fire until the target is
covered. After that, as soon as the target raises his head, it is
removed from him. 
Pilum stats:

ROF: 60
ACC: -1
Damage: As 9mm longnose, in Chromebook
Clip: 3000 rounds


VLDFAA:
     The VLDFAA (vertically launched destroy-from-above array) is
a set of twenty missile ports built into the rear deck, flush
with the surface of the hull. They can carry a wide mix of loads
(anything your heart desires) and any load can be fired
independently of the others. Or, in dire times, all can be fired
at once to sow confusion and reap the maximum number of
casualties. Also controlled from the gunner's seat.

VLDFAA stats:

ROF: 1-20
ACC: +2
Damage: HE, 6d10; HEAT, 6d10 a.p.; Flechette, 4d10 a.p. 6m burst;
     Smoke/chem, 30m burst; EMP, 6m burst; Incendiary, 5d10*2
     turns, 5m burst;


Hull-mounted Claymores:
     These are simply an array of claymores ringing the lower
     edge of the Juggernaut's skirt, designed to detonate on
     command or in the event of tampering with the vehicle. Stats
     as normal claymore, but there are twenty of them at regular
     intervals around the hull. Burglars beware!


Battle Cannon:
     This is the descendant of the Rheinmetall 120mm at the heart
of the Leopard II and the M-1. Instead of increasing the barrel
diameter, designers improved on the power of the device instead.
It now fires a variety of rounds: Smoke, anti-personnel flechette
cloud, anti-armor, laser-guided light artillery support, and all
the classic rounds such as HEP, HEAT and APFSDS. It is lethal to
all vehicles without the armor of _at_ _least_ a modern-day M-1.
An AV-4 hit by this monster would go up like a paper lantern.
Battle Cannon Stats:

ROF: 1
ACC:+1
Damage: Enough. Literally, unless the other vehicle is also
     military, or the target is under heavily-armored cover in
the case of anti-personnel rounds, assume the target is
destroyed if hit. For purposes of argument, estimate around
20-23d10 damage from a HE hit. Round types as the VLDFAA.
Clip: 27

Armor:
The vehicle is armored all around with ceramic-composite layered
sheets, up to a total of 300 sp. It has 1000 sdp. This is not a
vehicle as much as it is a building. A big building. No normal
weapons stand any real chance of hurting it, unless the wielder
knows exactly where to hit it. The thing has a crew of four, a
commander, driver, navigator/com officer, and gunner. It is also
extraordinarily maneuverable at lower speeds. It can spin like a
helicopter, and can also use its afterburners to jump over
obstacles up to 2m tall. It is a terrifying and inexorable
monolith, an irresistible force to counter the most immovable
objects.
     This thing does, however, have one major drawback, though.
Feeding costs. The maintenance, fuel and ammunition costs of a
juggernaut are astronomical. Thus, they're only used in very
special situations. The kind where Punknaughts crop up. These
vehicles' only purpose is to freeze the blood of punknaught
commanders and to break through charging riot lines around vital
civic areas in times of anarchy. Thus, they actually get used a
lot in some areas. Just the news of their arrival should strike
fear into the hearts of even the boldest malcontents, no matter
how much power they hold or how skilled they are. 

The Daong Anti-Cyber Micro-Napalm Launcher:

     The Daong was originally designed in China, to curtail cyber
crimes. The U.S. Military stole the design and began producing
their own version. It is an ugly weapon which is much too messy
to use against typical humans. 
     The Daong is an automatic shotgun almost as large as an FN-
RAL. It is roughly equivalent to an 8-guage, and takes its own
special ammunition. This ammunition is a mixed load of napalm,
teflon-coated pellets and quartz crystals grown specifically for
this purpose. They do tremendous damage, and set the target on
fire. This has a major psychological effect, even on a
cyberpsycho. Target must make a COOL roll with a difficulty of 20
to avoid panicking. If the target has pain edit, the diff is
reduced to 17. 
     This weapon is designed to destroy the coherency of any
group of cyborgs. Typical tactics are to attack the leader of a
group. If he panics, it is usually much easier to throw th rest
of the group into disarray. 
     In a few circumstances in China, this gun has been used as a
crowd control device with horrific effectiveness. The gun has a
wider-than-normal pattern due to its large load (double pattern
size from that listed for shotguns) so whole rows of people were
simply shattered, and the rows behind them often set ablaze. Even
the U.S. government was quick to condemn this use of excessive
force. 

ROF: 1(3 on autofire)
ACC: -3
Damage: 3d6 napalm (does damage for 3 consecutive turns) plus 5d6
     pellet (armor piercing) plus 3d6 quartz pellet (1/4 a.p.).
     All damage is added together for each hit!
Clip: 12

ASH-M (Advanced Squad Heavy Missle):
     The ASH-M is the newest and most advanced squad support
missle in use in 2020. It is a very expensive and flexible piece
of equipment issued only to elite units on fairly specific
missions, but The Military plans to have it in general use in the
future. 
     ASH-Ms come in a set of four tubes, all connected to a
central guidance system. The tubes are reloadable and reusable.
This unit is also equipped with interface plugs to allow soldiers
to take advantage of their own cyberware in firing the weapon.
They are equipped with the smartgun option as well as having a
full DUD-link (see the chromebook) to allow remote firing. 
     Further, the unit can be set on end and told to fire at a
target "painted" with a specific laser frequency. This means that
they are perfect for ambushing armored vehicle columns. The armor
crews can return fire at the source of the incoming missles, but
they will not hit the troops who fired them. Also, this allows
the weapons to strike the more thinly armored top of the vehicle
it is targeted against. This is a significant advance over the
old-style SSM (Squad Support Missle) which could only be directly
fired against its target.

ROF: 1-4
ACC: +2
Damage: 7d10 a.p. (HEAT warhead)
Clip: 4

Laser Reciever Cyberoptic Option:

     This is a simple device, a cyberoptic that scans the typical
frequencies used by lasers from laser gunsights. When it spots
them, it overlays their location onto the user's field of vision.
Thus, the user can "see" many of his targets when they think he
cannot. Often used by M.P.s assigned to protect V.I.P.s from
assassins, this piece of cyberware is highly classified. After
all, it works best when they don't know you have it!

Laser option:
HC: 1d6/2
-Takes up one option slot.

"Spitter" Squad Support Weapon:

     The Spitter was originally a Coast Guard weapon designed to
sink small boats as quickly as possible. It fires a massive
quantity of needle-sized explosive projectiles. "In ten seconds,
they could do more damage to a boat than a man with a chainsaw
could, with determination and leisure. " (Haldeman, 1986) The
weapon was later redesigned into a support weapon for use on
vehicles, used to devastating effect in the last stand of the
Mexican rebels at Acapulco. Many soldiers came home from that
fight with nightmares about exploding people and a phobia of the
smell of cooking meat.
     This gun is used in the same capacity as the 50 caliber
Browning of today's army, on vehicles and as a portable support
weapon mounted on a tripod or carried using a special waldo
exoskeleton rig, which has no effect other than to compensate for
the weapon's frightening recoil.
     It makes a noise when fired that is much like the sound of a
bag of cats being sucked into a jet engine. The psychological
effect of this weapon on both the firer and the target is up to
the individual GMs, but I reccomend something pretty drastic. I
have characters whose worst nightmare is that banshee yowl and
the sight of a comrade bursting like a rotting pumpkin. This
weapon is _FRIGHTENING_!

ROF: 110
ACC: +1
Damage: 4d6/hit. Each shell is armor piercing due to its size,
     but when they hit, the explosion causes fragmentation and
     tumbling of the shell and massive tissue trauma, therefore
     the weapon does _not_ divide its damage to tissue in half as
     does a normal A.P. attack.
Clip: 300
*GM's note: Warning! Be careful about your use of this weapon! It
     is horrifyingly lethal, and should be saved for a special
     moment or purpose. Perhaps have the PCs actually try to put
     them out of production, but do Not use them on a regular
     basis. These Things Are Deadly!

EMP Gun:

     This is a military-grade version of the Cyberpunk
microwaver, designed without so much concern for long-term
effects on the target of the weapon. These things are very
powerful. They act in two ways:
     Wide spread: The weapon does damage as an EMP grenade a la
Chromebook, with burn damage as a microwaver, and a _pattern_
exactly like that of a shotgun! Range is also as a shotgun. 
     Tight spread: The weapon is fired at a single target. Target
takes burn damage of 3d6, which ignores any implanted body armor
(though normal armor will act against it normally). Also, for
each 4 points of damage done, roll once on the microwaver special
effects table. Finally, if a specific body part is targeted, then
the player may pick one piece of cyberware in that part to knock
completely out. If he hits, that piece of equipment burns out.
This can only be used on components that the character _knows_ to
be present, but can be used to disable limbs, optics, and audio
implants, which will take out all other implants attached to the
given implant. The burn damage will still apply.

ROF: 1
ACC: -2
Damage: See above.
Clip: 22 shots, can be hooked up to larger powerpacks, or to a
     building's power supply.