[X] Plan Upgrades and Consolidation
Blood, Sweat, and Tears (WH40k Design Bureau)
- Thread starter DaLintyGuy
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
Is this a seperate vote or should it be part of a plan?
Mm... Might as well make it part of the plan.
Putting together a modified plan to use improved rapid shielding instead of abandoning the approach and starting over with normal shields.
[X] Plan Upgrades, Consolidation, and Rapid Shields
-[X] (Sensor) Distributed Array Auspex: The time when merchant grade sensors, no matter how expensive or cheap, can serve the crusade is now almost over. Fortunately, before this happened they've given the Mechanicus of Calavar ample information on what capabilities are needed for an actual, proper, militarized sensor array. Such requirements include hardened receivers that do not overload from detecting voidfire, a wide and distributed structure spread across the ship's hull for accurate long ranged scans, ample backups in case of combat degradation of said sensors, and specialized integrated cogitators to make sense of what the sensors are actually seeing. And lastly, they need to be hardened against enemy electronic counter-measures... or just plain old blasphemous screaming across the void. Fortunately, such capabilities are within the capacity of the Mechanicus to build.
-[X] (Farstrike Lance Upgrade or Add On) Laser Containment Array: The Farstrike lance boasts damage output within spitting distance of standard IN lances, but its range is far shorter. This modification attempts to address this weakness by surrounding the particle beam in a shell of lasers. The additional damage dealt by these lasers is marginal at best; their real purpose is to contain the main beam by nudging stray particles back in the right direction.
-[X] (Weapon) Standard Macrocannon Battery Mk2: A natural iterative development of earlier Calavan macrocannons, the Mk2 utilizes many of the same components as the Mk1 to ease logistics concerns regarding spare parts. The key difference is two-fold; the electromagnetic coils in the gun's barrel have been wound twice as tightly to provide a significant increase to projectile velocity, and the batteries themselves have been installed with shock dampeners not unlike those in structures built on seismically active regions, so as to mitigate an incoming impact's effects on accuracy.
-[X] (Defense) Multilayer Rapid Shielding: As the distributed shield design of Haptrix-pattern shielding seems to be inherently unworkable at cruiser-scale, a new approach is needed. This new system still layers multiple weak shields, but uses conventional full bubble shields rather than smaller scales. The outermost layers are weakest and fastest to recharge, with the shields getting progressively stronger farther in, although of course even the innermost is much weaker than a traditional shield.
-[X] (Economy) Dockyard militarization: Although the Calavar-V dockyard has been greatly expanded and is being expanded further, replicating and expanding the existing systems does not change the fact that they were originally designed for small civilian vessels. Although they can nonetheless produce capable warships, it is not without some difficulties, especially when casting the great structural beams of a ship's frame. This project seeks to change that, reviewing the various bottlenecks of warship construction and improving the least adequate systems.
-[X] Support the Lexicalum walker project
[X] Plan Upgrades, Consolidation, and Rapid Shields
-[X] (Sensor) Distributed Array Auspex: The time when merchant grade sensors, no matter how expensive or cheap, can serve the crusade is now almost over. Fortunately, before this happened they've given the Mechanicus of Calavar ample information on what capabilities are needed for an actual, proper, militarized sensor array. Such requirements include hardened receivers that do not overload from detecting voidfire, a wide and distributed structure spread across the ship's hull for accurate long ranged scans, ample backups in case of combat degradation of said sensors, and specialized integrated cogitators to make sense of what the sensors are actually seeing. And lastly, they need to be hardened against enemy electronic counter-measures... or just plain old blasphemous screaming across the void. Fortunately, such capabilities are within the capacity of the Mechanicus to build.
-[X] (Farstrike Lance Upgrade or Add On) Laser Containment Array: The Farstrike lance boasts damage output within spitting distance of standard IN lances, but its range is far shorter. This modification attempts to address this weakness by surrounding the particle beam in a shell of lasers. The additional damage dealt by these lasers is marginal at best; their real purpose is to contain the main beam by nudging stray particles back in the right direction.
-[X] (Weapon) Standard Macrocannon Battery Mk2: A natural iterative development of earlier Calavan macrocannons, the Mk2 utilizes many of the same components as the Mk1 to ease logistics concerns regarding spare parts. The key difference is two-fold; the electromagnetic coils in the gun's barrel have been wound twice as tightly to provide a significant increase to projectile velocity, and the batteries themselves have been installed with shock dampeners not unlike those in structures built on seismically active regions, so as to mitigate an incoming impact's effects on accuracy.
-[X] (Defense) Multilayer Rapid Shielding: As the distributed shield design of Haptrix-pattern shielding seems to be inherently unworkable at cruiser-scale, a new approach is needed. This new system still layers multiple weak shields, but uses conventional full bubble shields rather than smaller scales. The outermost layers are weakest and fastest to recharge, with the shields getting progressively stronger farther in, although of course even the innermost is much weaker than a traditional shield.
-[X] (Economy) Dockyard militarization: Although the Calavar-V dockyard has been greatly expanded and is being expanded further, replicating and expanding the existing systems does not change the fact that they were originally designed for small civilian vessels. Although they can nonetheless produce capable warships, it is not without some difficulties, especially when casting the great structural beams of a ship's frame. This project seeks to change that, reviewing the various bottlenecks of warship construction and improving the least adequate systems.
-[X] Support the Lexicalum walker project
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[X] Plan a new hull and accepting the deal
-[X] (Sensor) Distributed Array Auspex: The time when merchant grade sensors, no matter how expensive or cheap, can serve the crusade is now almost over. Fortunately, before this happened they've given the Mechanicus of Calavar ample information on what capabilities are needed for an actual, proper, militarized sensor array. Such requirements include hardened receivers that do not overload from detecting voidfire, a wide and distributed structure spread across the ship's hull for accurate long ranged scans, ample backups in case of combat degradation of said sensors, and specialized integrated cogitators to make sense of what the sensors are actually seeing. And lastly, they need to be hardened against enemy electronic counter-measures... or just plain old blasphemous screaming across the void. Fortunately, such capabilities are within the capacity of the Mechanicus to build.
-[X] Haptrix-Beta Rapid Shields are a refinement of the Haptrix-Alpha Rapid Shields that focuses on making them usable on cruisers
-[X] (Weapon) Standard Macrocannon Battery Mk2: A natural iterative development of earlier Calavan macrocannons, The key difference is two-fold; the electromagnetic coils in the gun's barrel have been wound twice as tightly to provide a significant increase to projectile velocity, an automated loading system has been added and the batteries themselves have been installed with shock dampeners not unlike those in structures built on seismically active regions, so as to mitigate an incoming impact's effects on accuracy. The designers also looked at the IN Macrocannon used in the Heralds and copied what they could.
-[X] (Hull) Rapier: The Rapier replaces the utility space of the hawk with a second engine and abandons the flexibility of earlier designs to ensure a higher performance(3W(2 locked to macrocannon),2D(one locked to shields, one to armor),2E). and the upgrades should focus on the dedicated macrocannon decks.
-[X] (Economy) Large scale metalwork: with the amount of ship being build increasing there is a greater demand for high strength metals to produce these the orbital metalwork has been designed that can produce these metals in the required amounts and at a lower cost then the existing facilities. the first product of the metalwork is a version of the scaffold armor made of stronger metal.
-[X] Support the Lexicalum walker project
As dalintyGuy informed me that ship larger then the hawk will result in weird things i made a new design that replaced the utility space for a second engine and tries to upgrade the weapons.
-[X] (Sensor) Distributed Array Auspex: The time when merchant grade sensors, no matter how expensive or cheap, can serve the crusade is now almost over. Fortunately, before this happened they've given the Mechanicus of Calavar ample information on what capabilities are needed for an actual, proper, militarized sensor array. Such requirements include hardened receivers that do not overload from detecting voidfire, a wide and distributed structure spread across the ship's hull for accurate long ranged scans, ample backups in case of combat degradation of said sensors, and specialized integrated cogitators to make sense of what the sensors are actually seeing. And lastly, they need to be hardened against enemy electronic counter-measures... or just plain old blasphemous screaming across the void. Fortunately, such capabilities are within the capacity of the Mechanicus to build.
-[X] Haptrix-Beta Rapid Shields are a refinement of the Haptrix-Alpha Rapid Shields that focuses on making them usable on cruisers
-[X] (Weapon) Standard Macrocannon Battery Mk2: A natural iterative development of earlier Calavan macrocannons, The key difference is two-fold; the electromagnetic coils in the gun's barrel have been wound twice as tightly to provide a significant increase to projectile velocity, an automated loading system has been added and the batteries themselves have been installed with shock dampeners not unlike those in structures built on seismically active regions, so as to mitigate an incoming impact's effects on accuracy. The designers also looked at the IN Macrocannon used in the Heralds and copied what they could.
-[X] (Hull) Rapier: The Rapier replaces the utility space of the hawk with a second engine and abandons the flexibility of earlier designs to ensure a higher performance(3W(2 locked to macrocannon),2D(one locked to shields, one to armor),2E). and the upgrades should focus on the dedicated macrocannon decks.
-[X] (Economy) Large scale metalwork: with the amount of ship being build increasing there is a greater demand for high strength metals to produce these the orbital metalwork has been designed that can produce these metals in the required amounts and at a lower cost then the existing facilities. the first product of the metalwork is a version of the scaffold armor made of stronger metal.
-[X] Support the Lexicalum walker project
As dalintyGuy informed me that ship larger then the hawk will result in weird things i made a new design that replaced the utility space for a second engine and tries to upgrade the weapons.
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Happerry
Bat out of Hell
- Location
- Kanto
Added support for the the Lexicalum walker project to my plan.
Anyway, I don't intend to drop the rapid shielding concept completely, but given that we've been having considerable issues scaling them up I don't see the issue with also making a normal shield design too. But honestly the main reason for the Fortress Pattern's existence was that when I was writing the plan I didn't find any pre-existing shield write ups that we hadn't already used that sounded like an actual upgrade, so I just wrote something simple up.
Your plan looks good as well, but given the issues we've had in scaling up the shield layers scheme I'll keep my plan as is. I've got some medical stuff today anyway (Non-virus based medical stuff) so I'm not sure how much I'll be able to pop on to respond to good points like the thing about the walker project.
Er, what? Could I have sauce on a statement that would work because I don't remember reading that anywhere.
Anyway, I don't intend to drop the rapid shielding concept completely, but given that we've been having considerable issues scaling them up I don't see the issue with also making a normal shield design too. But honestly the main reason for the Fortress Pattern's existence was that when I was writing the plan I didn't find any pre-existing shield write ups that we hadn't already used that sounded like an actual upgrade, so I just wrote something simple up.
Your plan looks good as well, but given the issues we've had in scaling up the shield layers scheme I'll keep my plan as is. I've got some medical stuff today anyway (Non-virus based medical stuff) so I'm not sure how much I'll be able to pop on to respond to good points like the thing about the walker project.
Going larger than the Hawk, which is itself a heavy Escort, is going to get into the gap between Escorts and Light Cruisers where weird things happen as they start hybridizing traits in perhaps not very good ways.
Thanks for the warning i changed the design from adding a engine to replacing the utility with an engine to keep it at the same size.
Of course, if you want to roll the dice on the result you can absolutely do something crazy like put a Cruiser scale component onto an otherwise Escort hull, be it Engine or Broadside. It'd just be... Unorthodox and risky as it would go against typical military wisdom.
Say, using a Design to consolidate the three Weapons on a War Hawk hull into a single Cruiser Broadside mount for a miniature Grand Cruiser styled variant.
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Happerry
Bat out of Hell
- Location
- Kanto
Hmm. Alright, I didn't remember that. I've now changed my plan over to using your shield write up. Since I don't want to just junk my own shield write up, I'm reposting it here for later. I do think we could use a normal shield generator sometime given the statement also mentioned the shield array would probably be more costy and 'mass more' (I sure hope that doesn't mean 'takes up more then one slot'), but if that will work for cruiser scale things we may as well do that as the better shields we design this turn.
-[ ] (Defense) Fortress Pattern Shield Generator: As successful as the Rapid Shields have been on the Hegemon's warships, the current production models are not projected to be sufficient for ships beyond the size of Frigates and the limitations of a distributed array are becoming increasingly apparent. As such, drawing on all available information from previous shield designs and any safely usable data on enemy shield arrays possessed by Calavar, a new shield is to be designed that functions more standardly, with a single primary generator generating a shield bubble big enough to cover an entire ship. Therefor it can be scaled up to fit cruiser sized vessels without the projected reliability issues of distributed arrays, and while it does not possess an arrays ability to quickly come back online it also does not have their weakness to Lance type weapons and other attacks with a single great impact.
-[ ] (Defense) Fortress Pattern Shield Generator: As successful as the Rapid Shields have been on the Hegemon's warships, the current production models are not projected to be sufficient for ships beyond the size of Frigates and the limitations of a distributed array are becoming increasingly apparent. As such, drawing on all available information from previous shield designs and any safely usable data on enemy shield arrays possessed by Calavar, a new shield is to be designed that functions more standardly, with a single primary generator generating a shield bubble big enough to cover an entire ship. Therefor it can be scaled up to fit cruiser sized vessels without the projected reliability issues of distributed arrays, and while it does not possess an arrays ability to quickly come back online it also does not have their weakness to Lance type weapons and other attacks with a single great impact.
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It looks like the edit didn't take; your post still has the fortress-pattern shield listed. As for the cost, it's a definite concern, although hopefully with a good roll it won't be an issue.
F0lkL0re
Officially not an Inquisitor
- Location
- Shetland
[X]Plan: attempt to NOT cast "summon gribblys"
-[X] (Life Support) "Cistern" Life Support System: Typical civilian life support systems are adequate for day-to-day use, but leave something to be desired in crisis situations. To better deal with the stresses of naval combat, this improved system incorporates reinforced bulkheads, strategically placed emergency shutters, specialized cogitators, and various pumps throughout the ship. This allows the crew to more easily seal off decompressed sections, starve out fires, and coincidentally delay and disrupt enemy boarding parties. Additionally, enhanced and expanded air scrubbers and water recyclers reduce the danger of smoke and chemical hazards, allow the ship to support additional personnel, and noticeably improve crew morale.
-[X] (Sensors) 'Auditor' T-200 Auspex: The dense sensor clusters of the T-100 are useful and effective sensors, but they can still be improved. The addition of potent active scanning emitters in a variety of spectra allow scans to map battle damage and track hostile fire with laser-focused clarity. The expanded arrays may even reveal important information from fainter traces, at greater distances. (Focuses on active scanning ability, and secondarily increased range. Sacrifice increased range goal to get improved active scans if necessary.)
-[X] (Warp drive) 'Longstride' Warp engine. While the typical drive itilized in merchant shipping suffice, the minimal use of technology and advanced components to save costs caused them to have slow charge times, greatly limited speed through the Warp and not being suited for fast/emergency jumps. The Longstride was Calavar's first attempt at improving their engines to something closer to what is utilized on Imperial Navy ships.
-[X] (Weapon) Standard Macrocannon Battery Mk2: A natural iterative development of earlier Calavan macrocannons, the Mk2 utilizes many of the same components as the Mk1 to ease logistics concerns regarding spare parts. The key difference is two-fold; the electromagnetic coils in the gun's barrel have been wound twice as tightly to provide a significant increase to projectile velocity, and the batteries themselves have been installed with shock dampeners not unlike those in structures built on seismically active regions, so as to mitigate an incoming impact's effects on accuracy.
-[X] (Defense) Multilayer Rapid Shielding: As the distributed shield design of Haptrix-pattern shielding seems to be inherently unworkable at cruiser-scale, a new approach is needed. This new system still layers multiple weak shields, but uses conventional full bubble shields rather than smaller scales. The outermost layers are weakest and fastest to recharge, with the shields getting progressively stronger farther in, although of course even the innermost is much weaker than a traditional shield.
-[X] Support the Lexicalum walker project
-[X] (Life Support) "Cistern" Life Support System: Typical civilian life support systems are adequate for day-to-day use, but leave something to be desired in crisis situations. To better deal with the stresses of naval combat, this improved system incorporates reinforced bulkheads, strategically placed emergency shutters, specialized cogitators, and various pumps throughout the ship. This allows the crew to more easily seal off decompressed sections, starve out fires, and coincidentally delay and disrupt enemy boarding parties. Additionally, enhanced and expanded air scrubbers and water recyclers reduce the danger of smoke and chemical hazards, allow the ship to support additional personnel, and noticeably improve crew morale.
-[X] (Sensors) 'Auditor' T-200 Auspex: The dense sensor clusters of the T-100 are useful and effective sensors, but they can still be improved. The addition of potent active scanning emitters in a variety of spectra allow scans to map battle damage and track hostile fire with laser-focused clarity. The expanded arrays may even reveal important information from fainter traces, at greater distances. (Focuses on active scanning ability, and secondarily increased range. Sacrifice increased range goal to get improved active scans if necessary.)
-[X] (Warp drive) 'Longstride' Warp engine. While the typical drive itilized in merchant shipping suffice, the minimal use of technology and advanced components to save costs caused them to have slow charge times, greatly limited speed through the Warp and not being suited for fast/emergency jumps. The Longstride was Calavar's first attempt at improving their engines to something closer to what is utilized on Imperial Navy ships.
-[X] (Weapon) Standard Macrocannon Battery Mk2: A natural iterative development of earlier Calavan macrocannons, the Mk2 utilizes many of the same components as the Mk1 to ease logistics concerns regarding spare parts. The key difference is two-fold; the electromagnetic coils in the gun's barrel have been wound twice as tightly to provide a significant increase to projectile velocity, and the batteries themselves have been installed with shock dampeners not unlike those in structures built on seismically active regions, so as to mitigate an incoming impact's effects on accuracy.
-[X] (Defense) Multilayer Rapid Shielding: As the distributed shield design of Haptrix-pattern shielding seems to be inherently unworkable at cruiser-scale, a new approach is needed. This new system still layers multiple weak shields, but uses conventional full bubble shields rather than smaller scales. The outermost layers are weakest and fastest to recharge, with the shields getting progressively stronger farther in, although of course even the innermost is much weaker than a traditional shield.
-[X] Support the Lexicalum walker project
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Happerry
Bat out of Hell
- Location
- Kanto
Fixed it.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Atom lasers are a thing we can make, if poorly, now. But Bose-Einstein condensates are finicky to deal with. I'll have to find some other semi-technobabble to justify something building off of the current lances.
You need [X] on the plan for it to count.
[X] Plan: attempt to NOT cast "summon gribblys"
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F0lkL0re
Officially not an Inquisitor
- Location
- Shetland
Whoops
Fixed it now, thank you.
Upgrades and Consolidation is winning comfortably but it was changed slightly after some people voted for it so I will call the vote in twenty four hours just in case.
- Location
- Minnesota
[X] Plan Upgrades and Consolidation
I put together writeups for plasma lances and flag bridges:
(Weapon) Pyroclast Plasma Lance: Like many lance weapons, the Farstrike lance has a tendency to overpenetrate, wasting much of its fury on the empty space behind its target. In an effort to solve this problem, this lance uses a cluster of smaller particle accelerators feeding into its beam rather than just two, allowing it to fire a larger volume of particles at a lower velocity for a longer period of time. Range and armor penetration both suffer, but when the beam strikes a target it decoheres into a cloud of furiously incandescent plasma, dangerous to armor and ruinous if it reaches a ship's internals. Any resemblance to the plasma weapons of the Hashim is surely coincidental.
(Bridge) Flag Bridge: This expanded bridge is intended to control not just one ship but to manage an entire fleet. With extra communications links, tactical displays, cogitators, and a far larger staff, a flag bridge can collect and collate information from across the fleet, allowing an admiral to far better coordinate his forces. The bridge is intended for capital ships, and although it is possible to squeeze it into an escort hull, it is nearly as expensive as a flag bridge on a cruiser would be, and the sheer size of it requires a utility slot.
(Weapon) Pyroclast Plasma Lance: Like many lance weapons, the Farstrike lance has a tendency to overpenetrate, wasting much of its fury on the empty space behind its target. In an effort to solve this problem, this lance uses a cluster of smaller particle accelerators feeding into its beam rather than just two, allowing it to fire a larger volume of particles at a lower velocity for a longer period of time. Range and armor penetration both suffer, but when the beam strikes a target it decoheres into a cloud of furiously incandescent plasma, dangerous to armor and ruinous if it reaches a ship's internals. Any resemblance to the plasma weapons of the Hashim is surely coincidental.
(Bridge) Flag Bridge: This expanded bridge is intended to control not just one ship but to manage an entire fleet. With extra communications links, tactical displays, cogitators, and a far larger staff, a flag bridge can collect and collate information from across the fleet, allowing an admiral to far better coordinate his forces. The bridge is intended for capital ships, and although it is possible to squeeze it into an escort hull, it is nearly as expensive as a flag bridge on a cruiser would be, and the sheer size of it requires a utility slot.
You now, I could have sworn there was already a proposal for an upgrade on our Thermo-cavitation shells. There is not. Well, my +1 to research on one is going to go to waste if it isn't used, so I am going to lay this down here for a future turn:
[Ordnance] Refined Thermo-Cavitation Shells: There are literal decades of data to draw on when it comes to the performance of the now familiar plasma shells. Drawing on the experience of their manufacturing, the special ammunition has been at long last been determined to be held back by their inception design. This obviously cannot do. As such, steps have been taken to make the Thermo-Cavitation Shells live up to their Omnisiah-given potential. No longer are they going to be half-butchered plasma engines encased inside a shell, instead they are going to be equipped with a plasma reactor dedicated to economically use the space inside their shells AND explosively fail at their peak from the ground up. This comes with a rearrangement of the standard plasma engine sensors, so that the machine spirit inside of them can track and vent plasma so that the inner chamber can reach prime fusion at each individual Shell's peak.
[Ordnance] Refined Thermo-Cavitation Shells: There are literal decades of data to draw on when it comes to the performance of the now familiar plasma shells. Drawing on the experience of their manufacturing, the special ammunition has been at long last been determined to be held back by their inception design. This obviously cannot do. As such, steps have been taken to make the Thermo-Cavitation Shells live up to their Omnisiah-given potential. No longer are they going to be half-butchered plasma engines encased inside a shell, instead they are going to be equipped with a plasma reactor dedicated to economically use the space inside their shells AND explosively fail at their peak from the ground up. This comes with a rearrangement of the standard plasma engine sensors, so that the machine spirit inside of them can track and vent plasma so that the inner chamber can reach prime fusion at each individual Shell's peak.
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Teething Problems (Reward of a free Attachment)
Hey, I wrote something:
On the barren surface of one of Calavar-V's inconsequential moons, a lone Harbinger touched down and opened its troop bay. Inside, a lone vehicle rose unsteadily to its feet and made its way out onto the frozen plains. Each clumsy step nearly had it leaving the ground in the moon's low gravity, and shook the cockpit around as it struggled to correct. Inside, Lieutenant Vance of the 1st Void Army cursed as he was jerked back and forth in the harness. This represented significant progress: on the last two tests, the walker had failed to adjust for the low gravity entirely and toppled over. This time, the walker stayed on its feet without major incident, and Vance was able to complete the test as planned: two hundred meters out and two hundred back, repeated five times.
Once the still-nameless walker came to a stop outside the shuttle, his Preserver's short-range vox caster crackled to life. The cockpit didn't maintain a breathable atmosphere, but it could relay vox messages to and from the pilot's own suit for environments like this.
"Excellent," said the mechanical voice of a Lexicalum Tech-priest whose name Vance had never even tried to pronounce.
"Excellent isn't the word I'd use. The damn thing's still standing, but it shook me around like someone's least favorite baby. Hasn't been ten minutes and I'm already bruised up."
"Nonetheless, the first stage of the test was a qualified success. Now, begin stage two."
"Are you nuts? This thing can barely walk, and you want me to try and make it run?"
"Succeed or fail, valuable knowledge will be gained." Vance couldn't hear much inflection in the Tech-priest's voice - he never could - but he thought that had sounded almost liturgical.
The walker stood motionless for a minute or two as Vance cursed at his indifferent tormenter (after turning the vox off, of course), but then he grudgingly turned the machine around and flipped the toggle that restricted it to walking speed.
The walker dipped into a slight crouch, then kicked off with its left leg, sending it some six meters into the moon's tenuous atmosphere. The right leg kicked at nothing a couple times, but then found the ground as the walker drifted back downwards. Awkwardly pushing off again, the machine launched itself forwards but began toppling to the right, capsizing in slow motion. When it crashed down on its side, it bounced once, rolled over three times, and then finally came to rest on its right side. The left leg continued kicking in the void until the dazed test pilot pulled the controls back to neutral.
"Very well," came the Tech-priest's damnably unabashed voice, "remain in place, and the recovery crew will reach you momentarily."
Some months later, Lieutenant Vance was feeling much better about his life. Despite his misgivings, the Tech-priests actually had understood that pilot comfort couldn't be ignored (even if some of them had argued that cybernetically enhancing the pilots was a better solution), and they had eventually fixed the walker's issues with walking. Even running was now only slightly uncomfortable, and so the project had moved from "walking robots" to "fighting robots."
Various weapons loadouts were being considered. At the moment, the walker was equipped with a pair of lascannons on each side of its body, mounted on stubby little turret-arms. In the interests of testing in all available environments, this round of tests was being done on Calavar itself.
"Down and to the left."
Vance pulled the targeting stick accordingly, and the walker's torso twisted to the left while the lascannons pointed themselves downward.
"Fire."
One pull of the trigger, and the top right lascannon flared, burning another glowing hole in the rocky soil.
"Excellent. Now, fire all weapons."
Vance grinned, flipped a switch he'd been itching to pull, and fired again. Four lasers shot out, and a pair of trenches appeared in the ground. Inside the cockpit, however, sparks burst out of somewhere and all the lights went dead as the power systems overloaded.
"Well shit. Looks like that burned something out."
There was no reply.
"Control, do you copy?" There was still only silence. "Shit. Vox must be out, too."
Muttering darkly to himself, Vance unstrapped his harness and pried open the hatch at the back, then looked down and realized he was still ten meters in the air.
"You fuckin' piece of... gonna need rope ladders in these things."
Vance's walker had been through a lot of refits. Lasers, autocannons, missiles, and a weird-ass light mortar battery had all spent time attached to the increasingly patchwork hull, with varying levels of success. Its current loadout, though, was in Vance's considered opinion by far the stupidest.
A huge mechanical arm on the right side of the body held an oversized chainsword. On the left was nothing but a counterweight keeping the walker from toppling over. Knights could make this sort of armament work, but without a neural interface the walker's swings were hopelessly clumsy and mechanical. It didn't help that Vance himself didn't know a thing about swordplay, but it probably didn't matter much either way.
It did at least have some decent power behind its swings, though. As the walker twisted its torso to the left, its sword swung out in a graceless horizontal arc towards the increasingly-battered test target. The sword's teeth bit deeply into the cheap steel with a shriek of tearing metal. The arm pressed the sword deeper into the target as the walker put more of its weight into it. Then, with one last groan, the target finally broke messily in half.
Unable to compensate for the sudden lack of resistance, the walker snapped abruptly to the left, then kept twisting, forcing its right knee to buckle and sending it straight to the ground. The chainsword, though, somehow found its way to the upper left side of the cockpit and started tearing through the thin armor there, sending sparks and bits of shrapnel flying every which way inside. Finally, something failed in the arm's systems, and the chainsword came to a stop centimeters away from Vance's head.
Panting for breath, he started checking himself over for injury - his armored voidsuit appeared to have stopped all the shrapnel, fortunately - when the still-functioning vox crackled to life again.
"I believe this concludes chainsword testing for the time being."
"It fucking well better!"
Teething Problems
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
On the barren surface of one of Calavar-V's inconsequential moons, a lone Harbinger touched down and opened its troop bay. Inside, a lone vehicle rose unsteadily to its feet and made its way out onto the frozen plains. Each clumsy step nearly had it leaving the ground in the moon's low gravity, and shook the cockpit around as it struggled to correct. Inside, Lieutenant Vance of the 1st Void Army cursed as he was jerked back and forth in the harness. This represented significant progress: on the last two tests, the walker had failed to adjust for the low gravity entirely and toppled over. This time, the walker stayed on its feet without major incident, and Vance was able to complete the test as planned: two hundred meters out and two hundred back, repeated five times.
Once the still-nameless walker came to a stop outside the shuttle, his Preserver's short-range vox caster crackled to life. The cockpit didn't maintain a breathable atmosphere, but it could relay vox messages to and from the pilot's own suit for environments like this.
"Excellent," said the mechanical voice of a Lexicalum Tech-priest whose name Vance had never even tried to pronounce.
"Excellent isn't the word I'd use. The damn thing's still standing, but it shook me around like someone's least favorite baby. Hasn't been ten minutes and I'm already bruised up."
"Nonetheless, the first stage of the test was a qualified success. Now, begin stage two."
"Are you nuts? This thing can barely walk, and you want me to try and make it run?"
"Succeed or fail, valuable knowledge will be gained." Vance couldn't hear much inflection in the Tech-priest's voice - he never could - but he thought that had sounded almost liturgical.
The walker stood motionless for a minute or two as Vance cursed at his indifferent tormenter (after turning the vox off, of course), but then he grudgingly turned the machine around and flipped the toggle that restricted it to walking speed.
The walker dipped into a slight crouch, then kicked off with its left leg, sending it some six meters into the moon's tenuous atmosphere. The right leg kicked at nothing a couple times, but then found the ground as the walker drifted back downwards. Awkwardly pushing off again, the machine launched itself forwards but began toppling to the right, capsizing in slow motion. When it crashed down on its side, it bounced once, rolled over three times, and then finally came to rest on its right side. The left leg continued kicking in the void until the dazed test pilot pulled the controls back to neutral.
"Very well," came the Tech-priest's damnably unabashed voice, "remain in place, and the recovery crew will reach you momentarily."
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Some months later, Lieutenant Vance was feeling much better about his life. Despite his misgivings, the Tech-priests actually had understood that pilot comfort couldn't be ignored (even if some of them had argued that cybernetically enhancing the pilots was a better solution), and they had eventually fixed the walker's issues with walking. Even running was now only slightly uncomfortable, and so the project had moved from "walking robots" to "fighting robots."
Various weapons loadouts were being considered. At the moment, the walker was equipped with a pair of lascannons on each side of its body, mounted on stubby little turret-arms. In the interests of testing in all available environments, this round of tests was being done on Calavar itself.
"Down and to the left."
Vance pulled the targeting stick accordingly, and the walker's torso twisted to the left while the lascannons pointed themselves downward.
"Fire."
One pull of the trigger, and the top right lascannon flared, burning another glowing hole in the rocky soil.
"Excellent. Now, fire all weapons."
Vance grinned, flipped a switch he'd been itching to pull, and fired again. Four lasers shot out, and a pair of trenches appeared in the ground. Inside the cockpit, however, sparks burst out of somewhere and all the lights went dead as the power systems overloaded.
"Well shit. Looks like that burned something out."
There was no reply.
"Control, do you copy?" There was still only silence. "Shit. Vox must be out, too."
Muttering darkly to himself, Vance unstrapped his harness and pried open the hatch at the back, then looked down and realized he was still ten meters in the air.
"You fuckin' piece of... gonna need rope ladders in these things."
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Vance's walker had been through a lot of refits. Lasers, autocannons, missiles, and a weird-ass light mortar battery had all spent time attached to the increasingly patchwork hull, with varying levels of success. Its current loadout, though, was in Vance's considered opinion by far the stupidest.
A huge mechanical arm on the right side of the body held an oversized chainsword. On the left was nothing but a counterweight keeping the walker from toppling over. Knights could make this sort of armament work, but without a neural interface the walker's swings were hopelessly clumsy and mechanical. It didn't help that Vance himself didn't know a thing about swordplay, but it probably didn't matter much either way.
It did at least have some decent power behind its swings, though. As the walker twisted its torso to the left, its sword swung out in a graceless horizontal arc towards the increasingly-battered test target. The sword's teeth bit deeply into the cheap steel with a shriek of tearing metal. The arm pressed the sword deeper into the target as the walker put more of its weight into it. Then, with one last groan, the target finally broke messily in half.
Unable to compensate for the sudden lack of resistance, the walker snapped abruptly to the left, then kept twisting, forcing its right knee to buckle and sending it straight to the ground. The chainsword, though, somehow found its way to the upper left side of the cockpit and started tearing through the thin armor there, sending sparks and bits of shrapnel flying every which way inside. Finally, something failed in the arm's systems, and the chainsword came to a stop centimeters away from Vance's head.
Panting for breath, he started checking himself over for injury - his armored voidsuit appeared to have stopped all the shrapnel, fortunately - when the still-functioning vox crackled to life again.
"I believe this concludes chainsword testing for the time being."
"It fucking well better!"
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Nicely done, if lacking somewhat in background. As for a reward I will have rethink about it. Maybe a ground detachment of the new units, maybe a bonus to the next walker project done by Calavar.
On that note, the vote is formally being called and progress is ongoing. Everyone will be pleased to know that the rolls were above average and Lexicalum will be getting their own research action every turn going forward.
On that note, the vote is formally being called and progress is ongoing. Everyone will be pleased to know that the rolls were above average and Lexicalum will be getting their own research action every turn going forward.
Yeah, I don't actually know 40k lore very well, which makes it really hard to do background right. I set it up this way specifically so I could skip the background.
Reward-wise... I was hoping for a bonus to this turn's walker research roll (in the interests of strengthening our relationship with Lexicalum), but it sounds like we didn't need it. So... I dunno either?