The swift blades of the Forge
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The swift blades of the Forge
Among the greatest enemies of the Mechanicum of Callamus is the massive Golden Imperium known as the Ophelian Theocracy. Like all followers of the Tyrant they posses a severe vulnerability to hit and run attacks and harassment. A vulnerability Callmus has focused a great deal of innovation on exploiting. A number of Callamus' more successful innovations designed to take advantage of this vulnerability are listed below.
Sky Keeps - an application of the technology behind aerial districts on the well known concept of the drop keep. Sky keeps are capable of both orbital insertion and powered flight, enabling rapid redeployment of the fortress and the knights within. There are two main designs, the Noon and Midnight pattern sky keeps. The Noon pattern is used much like conveintal drop keeps; while somewhat less durable than a conventional drop keep its ability to lift up after orbital insertion greatly outweighs that, its powerful engines giving it ability it to move great deal faster than most knights and allows for rapid deployment of knight forces over any terrain. The Midnight pattern sky keep is only distantly related, to the point that many consider it being called a pattern rather than its own design a polite political fiction. The Midnight is a poor fortress, possessing few emplaced weapons and relatively thin armor. Instead it is capable of far greater speed and possess a degree of stealth technology. Typically Midnight sky keeps are used to allow knights to attack from unexpected angles, often fading back into the keep for rapid deployment on another front after a strike. This allows even heavy and relatively slow knight patterns to be employed for hit and run attacks, as a midnight pattern sky keep can often close surprisingly close to an army on the move before deploying its knights.
Cyber Stalkers - inspired by the ubiquitous cyber mastiffs, cyber stalkers are a far larger and more independant construct. The base creature originally was an apex predator from a deathworld under Callamus control, though after centuries of genetic engineering and selective breeding the current strains bears only superficial resemblance to their wild ancestors; typically an equal mix of cybernetics and vat grown clone stalkers resemble large cybernetic panthers. Combining basic stealth technology with deadly hunting instinct they are immensely skilled at slipping through guarded perimeters or picking off entire patrols one man at a time. Typically armed with a number of close combat weapons and a silent ranged weapon of some variety in a shoulder mount they are an immensely module design. Variants exist for assassination, elimination of screening elements, shock-and-awe patterns forgoing silent weaponry for sonic pulsers, photostrobes and haywire projectors to be activated after getting close to the enemy forces to stun and distract them during a critical moment; even demolition variants who act as guided munitions. Typically they are either deployed in packs led by a highly augmented handler to achieve a specific objective, or released into a region to act as area denial. Much of the success of the design comes from its sheer versatility, ensuring Ophelian commanders are always facing some new take on the design preventing them from developing effective countermeasures. As a rule of thumb, the more organic a cyber stalker the cheaper and more numerous it is, though by design there are exceptions to this.
Aerial Knights - less a single pattern and more a concept, aerial knights are knight titans that have been fitted with repulsorlifts and jets, enabling them to fly. Typically lighter knights will become capable of true flight, to the point where they can even use it in battle, while larger knights tend to be too slow and ungainly in the air to use it as anything but a navigation aid, a way for even the bulkiest of knights to cross difficult terrain. This comes at a cost however, as the system adds more bulk and power draw. Exactly what is given up to compensate varies pattern to pattern, though a number of variants exist who simply compensate by using more potent, and thus expensive reactors and repulsors, allowing the extra equipment to compensate for its own weight. Such variants are known as ace aerial knights are are significantly more expensive.
Aerial barding - an alternative to employing aerial knights, aerial barding is essentially a knight titan sized jump pack. It combines an external repulsor and jet assembly to allow a knight to cross difficult terrain. However the device is bulky, and often cumbersome to fight in with the power-hungry repulsors disengaged. A common tactic is for knights to use the barding for a single charge, then decouple it before engaging as normal, however this tactic can be risky as it requires the knights to separate themselves from the avenue of escape. Experiments with titan scale aerial barding show some promise, but are likely decades away from anything usable.
Postern Gate - a refinement of Imperial teleportation technology. The Postern Gate is a single use teleporter homer that will provide an extremely high quality lock on for a Teleportation once. The accuracy comes at cost, the intricate and delicate homer is always destroyed by an violent disruption caused by the teleportation itself, making it unsuitable for repeat use, but it does allow for many unconventional uses for teleportation. A number of variants exist, a cheaper version that functions much like a teleport homer, and a larger version that can boost the signal to the point of allowing a teleport lock though both shielding and many meters of rock. The second version can be placed in hidden underground bunkers, allowing entire battalions to be inserted behind enemy lines. Famously, in once instance mass use of Postern Gate allowed a hundred Battle Congregations to ravage the backline of an Ophelian Crusade. The cheaper version is used in a manner similar to typical teleport homers, though the greater numbers they can be deployed in opens up a number of unusual applications. Such as the dragon's teeth minefield, where buried gates with pressure sensors are used to teleport in murder servitors into enemy formations.
@Durin some tech ides
thanks to DeusFerreus for beating this unprompted.
Among the greatest enemies of the Mechanicum of Callamus is the massive Golden Imperium known as the Ophelian Theocracy. Like all followers of the Tyrant they posses a severe vulnerability to hit and run attacks and harassment. A vulnerability Callmus has focused a great deal of innovation on exploiting. A number of Callamus' more successful innovations designed to take advantage of this vulnerability are listed below.
Sky Keeps - an application of the technology behind aerial districts on the well known concept of the drop keep. Sky keeps are capable of both orbital insertion and powered flight, enabling rapid redeployment of the fortress and the knights within. There are two main designs, the Noon and Midnight pattern sky keeps. The Noon pattern is used much like conveintal drop keeps; while somewhat less durable than a conventional drop keep its ability to lift up after orbital insertion greatly outweighs that, its powerful engines giving it ability it to move great deal faster than most knights and allows for rapid deployment of knight forces over any terrain. The Midnight pattern sky keep is only distantly related, to the point that many consider it being called a pattern rather than its own design a polite political fiction. The Midnight is a poor fortress, possessing few emplaced weapons and relatively thin armor. Instead it is capable of far greater speed and possess a degree of stealth technology. Typically Midnight sky keeps are used to allow knights to attack from unexpected angles, often fading back into the keep for rapid deployment on another front after a strike. This allows even heavy and relatively slow knight patterns to be employed for hit and run attacks, as a midnight pattern sky keep can often close surprisingly close to an army on the move before deploying its knights.
Cyber Stalkers - inspired by the ubiquitous cyber mastiffs, cyber stalkers are a far larger and more independant construct. The base creature originally was an apex predator from a deathworld under Callamus control, though after centuries of genetic engineering and selective breeding the current strains bears only superficial resemblance to their wild ancestors; typically an equal mix of cybernetics and vat grown clone stalkers resemble large cybernetic panthers. Combining basic stealth technology with deadly hunting instinct they are immensely skilled at slipping through guarded perimeters or picking off entire patrols one man at a time. Typically armed with a number of close combat weapons and a silent ranged weapon of some variety in a shoulder mount they are an immensely module design. Variants exist for assassination, elimination of screening elements, shock-and-awe patterns forgoing silent weaponry for sonic pulsers, photostrobes and haywire projectors to be activated after getting close to the enemy forces to stun and distract them during a critical moment; even demolition variants who act as guided munitions. Typically they are either deployed in packs led by a highly augmented handler to achieve a specific objective, or released into a region to act as area denial. Much of the success of the design comes from its sheer versatility, ensuring Ophelian commanders are always facing some new take on the design preventing them from developing effective countermeasures. As a rule of thumb, the more organic a cyber stalker the cheaper and more numerous it is, though by design there are exceptions to this.
Aerial Knights - less a single pattern and more a concept, aerial knights are knight titans that have been fitted with repulsorlifts and jets, enabling them to fly. Typically lighter knights will become capable of true flight, to the point where they can even use it in battle, while larger knights tend to be too slow and ungainly in the air to use it as anything but a navigation aid, a way for even the bulkiest of knights to cross difficult terrain. This comes at a cost however, as the system adds more bulk and power draw. Exactly what is given up to compensate varies pattern to pattern, though a number of variants exist who simply compensate by using more potent, and thus expensive reactors and repulsors, allowing the extra equipment to compensate for its own weight. Such variants are known as ace aerial knights are are significantly more expensive.
Aerial barding - an alternative to employing aerial knights, aerial barding is essentially a knight titan sized jump pack. It combines an external repulsor and jet assembly to allow a knight to cross difficult terrain. However the device is bulky, and often cumbersome to fight in with the power-hungry repulsors disengaged. A common tactic is for knights to use the barding for a single charge, then decouple it before engaging as normal, however this tactic can be risky as it requires the knights to separate themselves from the avenue of escape. Experiments with titan scale aerial barding show some promise, but are likely decades away from anything usable.
Postern Gate - a refinement of Imperial teleportation technology. The Postern Gate is a single use teleporter homer that will provide an extremely high quality lock on for a Teleportation once. The accuracy comes at cost, the intricate and delicate homer is always destroyed by an violent disruption caused by the teleportation itself, making it unsuitable for repeat use, but it does allow for many unconventional uses for teleportation. A number of variants exist, a cheaper version that functions much like a teleport homer, and a larger version that can boost the signal to the point of allowing a teleport lock though both shielding and many meters of rock. The second version can be placed in hidden underground bunkers, allowing entire battalions to be inserted behind enemy lines. Famously, in once instance mass use of Postern Gate allowed a hundred Battle Congregations to ravage the backline of an Ophelian Crusade. The cheaper version is used in a manner similar to typical teleport homers, though the greater numbers they can be deployed in opens up a number of unusual applications. Such as the dragon's teeth minefield, where buried gates with pressure sensors are used to teleport in murder servitors into enemy formations.
@Durin some tech ides
thanks to DeusFerreus for beating this unprompted.
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