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SPLICERS Legion Terror Hulk

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Featured in The Rifter# 75, "I am Legion," Episode Article 4, published by Palladium Books.

palladium-store.com/1001/produ…

 
The Terror Thumper is one of the largest and most feared brawlers of Legion's Amalgam infantry. When Terror Thumpers arrive to a battle, they bellow a loud sonic war cry that is not only disheartening to hear, but is also deafening and disorienting if heard within proximity (100 feet/30 m). Legion first discovered this deadly concoction after defeating several Dracos War Mounts and salvaging their parts to devise an amalgam that would deliver heavy firepower, heavy muscle support, and flushing capabilities within the tight spaces of sewer systems, caverns, or haven structures. The battery of long-range firepower is brutal to contend with and psychologically terrifying to experience. Drooling Casting Rifles are built into the massive shoulders with turret swiveling capability.
Also accompanying each Casting Rifle is a Robot Grenade Mini-Gun that peppers enemy forces and strongholds with chained explosive bursts.

 Built originally as an Anti-War Mount unit, Terror Thumpers are extremely strong and exceptionally durable. The Thumper’s physical strength is freakish, rivaling a Behemoth, due to the mechanical enhancements and internal hydraulics. They have reinforced armored helmets and a protective Kevlar cowling that covers the back of the head and neck in order to protect the sensors suite inside so that the amalgam can scan & accurately target opponents. Even adversaries hiding behind thick resin walls and foliage or in the mist of a chaotic battlefield, within 50 feet (15.2 m) are detected. Only Skinjobs with their Stealth Field and special skills seem to go undetected.

 Legion's favorite component for this design is her implementation of one of the Resistance's most prized War Mounts. A Dracos head and neck, called the Ravager Arm Cannon (the RAC), is mounted to the right shoulder and is used as both a arm and as the primary purging weapon. This draconian armature was designed to combat both Splicers and N.E.X.U.S. machines as it can fire volleys of Super Light Cell energy beams or worse, spew heavy bursts of molten liquid tungsten metal. With a specialized chest cavity reservoir and utilizing a refractory lining, these amalgams do not suffer any heat damage while the Dracos armature sprays the molten metal. The hot liquid metal literally melts metal armor plating and Bio-Tech armor quite easily, with horrific results to the contents inside. Even if the Terror Thumper misses its initial attack, the very idea of molten metal splattered and laying around, and leaving slag metal ore residue everywhere can be a Splicer's worst nightmare.

 Its easy for the Terror Thumper to peak the Dracos's head and neck into a cave entrance, tunnel or room, spraying each rapidly, without having to expose its body to retaliation gunfire. This saves time as the amalgam is relieved from having to go down and enter each tunnel to search for adversaries and falling into traps. The hot steam, intense heat and molten metal splattered everywhere usually does the job. For Splicers, even waiting for the metal and slag to cool, only adds to the problem. Legion enjoys using Human's fear of metal to her advantage by dowsing passageways with the molten metal to cut off would-be escape routes and entrances. The bright, burning liquid metal is easy to spot and it is clear what it is, and the very idea of accidentally falling into it or touching it, often makes it a very difficult path to navigate and most humans instinctively seek another way to escape.  

  Legion's primary concerns with the Terror Thumper design however, prevent her from mass producing them. With limited availability of key "ingredients" for making Thumpers as Dracos are not easy to capture nor are they plentiful among the Resistance, these amalgams a rarely deployed unless Legion really wants something bad or is forced to defend herself. When Legion deploys these brutes, they are typically active for ten hour intervals and then ordered to return back to one of Legion's facilities or directly to the Factory Walker. This preserves the Thumpers from overheating and keeps them healthy for enemy retaliations. 

Class

: Heavy Assault Fighter & Battlefield Enforcer.

Speed:

Running: 50 mph (80 km) maximum, but normal cruising speed is only 30-40 mph (48 to 64 km).

Leaping: 10 feet (3 m) or 15 feet (4.57 m) across, increase by 50% with a running start. Terror Thumpers are equipped with jump jets built into their lower legs, that can propel the amalgam 20 feet (6.1 m) high or across, increase by 50% with a short running start and double when running at full tilt.

Digging: 20 mph (32 km) through sand or dirt, but half that speed through clay, rock or stone. Digging does not tire the Thumper.

Swimming: Not possible, the amalgam sinks like a stone, but can walk along the bottom with a maximum depth underwater of 800 feet (243.8 m). 

Flying: Not Possible.

 

Statistical Data:

Height: 11-14 feet tall (3.35 to 4.3 m).

Width: 6-7.5 feet shoulder to shoulder (1.8 to 2.3 m)

Length: 5-6 feet (1.5 to 1.8 m)

Weight: 4 tons fully loaded and fed.

Cargo: None, but a Terror Thumper can carry 2000 pounds (900 kg) on its back and up to 7 tons can be pulled.

Power System: Standard Fusion Cells power the robot parts, while the Legion's Nanobots bridge the support to the Bio-Tech organic parts. In order to sustain the Bio-Tech parts the Terror Thumper requires 30 to 100 lbs. (13.5 to 45 kg) of animal or human matter or Bio-Tech (can be any composition of Living Body Armor, Host Armor, War Mounts or Bio-Tech Weapons) to sustain the Thumper's living parts. The Amalgam may gorge up to 250 (113.4 kg) of animal matter or Bio-Tech and can go 2D6 days without feeding and without suffering any ill effects. If the Amalgam does not consume its daily required amount of animal matter or Bio-Tech a day, it will begin to weaken (reduce speed, all Bio-Tech weapon ranges and senses by half). This can often leave Terror Thumpers with partially functioning parts as Legion is still learning how Bio-Technology completely works and is unable to replicate its designs nor harvest all of its regenerating principles. If the amalgam goes beyond 12 days without feeding the living Bio-Tech portions will die and the Amalgam inevitably decays. Collectors may scavenge the carcass for spare parts.   

Sleep Requirements: As a partial artificial organism, the Amalgam requires only four hours of sleep or rest per day.

Construction Quality: Considered an Asymmetrical Freak with favorable results that validates reproduction.

Trade Value: None. Can NOT be controlled by a Technojacker.

Horror Factor: 16. None against Robots.

Colors: Typically crimson blood red metallic plating, with the dark Bio-Tech armor and hide parts underneath. The teeth on the head however are ivory white with a purple halogen hue. Elite units have off-white metallic parts instead of crimson.   

Senses & Features: All standard Robot, plus the following:

Sensor Antennae: The bio-mechanical stinger appendage mounted on the right shoulder is not  a weapon at all, but was purposely designed to resemble one to avoid it from being targeted and to keep would-be assailants from going near it. It is deceptively a sensor antennae that provides the following senses: Antennae, Electromagnetic Vision, Radar and Seismic Sense.   

 

Weapon Systems:

1.) Dracos Ravager Arm Cannon (the RAC). This is an excellent example of Legion’s unconventional, unorthodox yet genius style of thinking. The right arm of the Terror Thumper is a fully functional reinforced Dracos War Mount head and neck that is redesigned to spray deadly burst of molten metal. Super Light Cells are built behind each eye socket that enables the Dracos Ravager Arm Cannon to fire energy beams from its eyes. The Dracos armature is truly a formidable concoction as it is able to deliver devastating bites, swat enemies or in some cases even constrict an entangled victim. 

Primary Purpose: Assault, Enemy Excavation and Troop Combat Support.

A. Slag Thrower Mega-Damage: Can spew a molten metal burst spray with a 5 foot (1.5 m) splash radius, but the target hit with the burning liquid continues to burn and takes additional damage every melee round for 2-8 minutes. Concentrated burst does extreme damage with a 12 foot (3.65 m) splash radius, plus an additional amount damage for 2-8 minutes. Reduce all damage and burning durations by half for Technojackers if they are in their Nanobot Armor at the time of contact. Technojackers being hit by molten metal while in their human flesh form and then changing into the nanobot armor does full damage for the full duration. For exposed humans/or pilots inside armor that are being burned also take severe damage from the molten metal as it continues to burn and causes additional damage every melee round for 2-8 minutes, directly to the burned area. 

Molten Metal on Flesh: A molten metal burn is one of the most deepest and severe, full-thickness burns that human flesh can experience. If a human character is sprayed with molten metal, it will burn instantly through their flesh at an alarming rate, and the character loses half his attacks per melee, is -6 on all combat bonuses and will be in intense pain and panicked trying to cool the burning liquid any way he can (half these penalties if the character is clad in M.D. armor).

Worst and perhaps even more sadistic is once the molten metal has cooled (by dousing with dirt, mineral oil, water or time duration) the slag residue will form, and the embedded nanobots within the slag come back online instantly triggering a nanobot plague reaction (see Splicers® RPG, Page 11 - treat as a Simple Metal Item). It is extremely crucial to remove all of the molten metal and slag splatter from all burn wounds (both within the armor and pilot) before it cools down to avoid the inevitable nanobot plague reaction. 

Molten Metal on M.D. Armor: Wearing mega-damage armor like Host Armor, Living Body Armor, Nanobot Armor, Plastic Armor or War Mount hide does not mean the pilot/War Mount (or Technojacker for that matter) is completely safe or alleviated from the molten metal attack. If the hot metal splatter stays in contact with the armor, then that molten metal stays there burning through its victim (1D4 inches a melee action for 2D4 minutes) until it is either cooled or removed. Pilots in armor that have molten metal splattered onto it, are still going to have the hot liquid burning through their armor at a rate of 1D4 inches per action. Inevitably if the molten metal is not cooled, it will quickly reach the pilot inside. (see Molten Metal on Flesh, written above for continued results).

A Technojacker's Nanobot Armor does offer some protection and thus the damage is 3D6 M.D. However, any machine connected to or melded with the Technojacker is minus -2 melee attacks as the Technojacker has to refocus control of it.

Molten Metal on Robots and Drones: All cyborgs, robots, and drones receive only half damage and only half the burning duration, plus minus one attack and are penalty of -3 on all combat bonuses as they do not feel pain caused by the hot liquid and will continue to fight, despite the circuitry and wiring underneath that may be burning. 

B. Ravager Super Light Cells: For opponents that are spotted hiding or fleeing further down the tunnels, the Ravager Arm Cannon reveals its next trick, as it mows down victims with its Super Light Cell beams located behind the Dracos's eyes.

Rate of Fire: Slag Thrower: Each slag spray of molten metal counts as one melee attack, though the head can simultaneously attack with a Molten Metal spray while the Dracos's head is biting and only counts as one attack. The Dracos's Super Light Cells mounted behind the optics, however, are not aligned to lock onto a target during the time the Dracos's mouth is open and spraying the hot liquid metal.

Super Light Cells: Each 1 or 2 blasts and count as one melee attack or volley bursts counts as one melee attack per cannon, but reduce the bonus to strike with ranged weapons by half when firing a burst.

Maximum Effective Range: Slag Thrower: 100 feet (30 m). This Amalgam can also opt to contaminate an area by coating it with the molten metal; up to 50 feet (15.2 m) can be showered with each attack. So a Thumper with four hand to hand attacks remaining could affect an area of 200 feet (61 m); everybody hit within the area affected takes damage (see appropriate damage above).

Super Light Cells: 1200 feet (366 m), and the Bite has a 16 foot (4.8 m) reach.

Payload: Slag Thrower: Fifteen spray attacks for the Dracos head and its payload reservoir can be refilled by the Factory Walker's in 1D10 hours. It can also regenerate spent slag before the entire payload is gone by simply consuming metal scraps and allowing the pieces to melt down within the molten metal pool within its chest reservoir. The Amalgam's reservoir must have at least five sprays worth of molten metal to sufficiently melt additional scrap. Every ten pounds (4.5 kg) of metal equals one spray and takes 1D6 melee actions to effectively melt the consumed scrap.   

Super light Cells: Effectively unlimited.

Bonuses: +4 to Horror Factor.

Penalties: Legion gets frustrated very quickly about her Terror Thumpers having a bad habit (22% chance) of overheating after long periods of intense combat (15 hours before overheating, double if submerged in water). Once overheated, the Thumper becomes sluggish and exhausted (reduce attacks and speed by half) and is -5 to strike and dodge for 2D4 melee actions

2. Sonic Pulse War Cry - The Terror Thumper's chest maw is designed to emit an incredibly loud sonic pulse, as a fierce war cry, that is capable of deafening anyone caught within its proximity. Worse, Terror Thumpers will emit these loud thumping roars to purposely trigger cave-ins, avalanches, rock slides, shatter glass, etc., in order to collapse tunnels and trapping or seriously wounding enemies that are traversing such passageways or territories.

Primary Purpose: Enemy Flushing and Psychological Terror.

Effects of the War Cry: Terror Thumpers are insulated from the shock waves of its own War Cry, however, everyone within 100 feet (30 m) will be temporarily deafened (double that range if in a cavern, industrial hallways or compound  corridors, tunnels, or sewer systems. Triple if underwater.) Characters without any type of sound/ear protection will be temporarily deafened for 3D4 Minutes and are -6 on initiative and -3 to parry and dodge. Characters who are inside environmental armor (like Living Body Armor, full body armor plastic/carbon fiber like House Tarkov and Technojacker Nanobot Armor), or a light M.D. vehicle, will have some protection but are still temporarily deafened for 1D4 minutes; same penalties apply but for a shorter duration. Each War Cry adds to the duration of the deafness. Host Armors, Proto-Host Armors, Heavy Power Armors or War Mounts and heavily reinforced M.D. vehicles are sufficiently protected so that the pilot, crew and passengers inside hear (and feel) the shuddering roar, but do not suffer any penalties. 

The War Cry also affects the physical surroundings by shaking buildings, trigger cave-ins, avalanches, rockslides, and shatter S.D.C. windows within 200 feet (61 m) radius of the bellow.

Rate of Fire: Each War Cry counts as one melee attack but can be conducted simultaneously with any of the Terror Hulks firing weapons or physical attacks.

Maximum Effective Range: 100 feet (30 m) in open areas, double the range if in a cavern, industrial hallways or compound  corridors, tunnels, or sewer systems. Triple if underwater.

Payload: Effectively Unlimited.

3.) Shoulder Mounted Casting Rifles (2): Each massive, armored shoulder has a wicked looking Casting Rifle.

Primary Purpose: Anti-Armor, Anti-Robot and Artillery Support.

Rate of Fire: Each shot or burst counts as one melee attack, or both Casting Rifles can also be fired simultaneously at different targets and count as one melee attack when using the specialized Chameleon Optic Sensors. If one of the optics are destroyed then each Casting Rifle shot/burst defaults to one melee attack and suffers a penalty of (-6 to strike).

Maximum Effective Range: 2800 feet (853 m).

Payload: 60 rounds per Rifle and are automatically reloaded replenishing as many the payloads for both  guns (2D10+20 minutes) after every meal.

Bonus: +2 to strike on an aimed shot only, no bonus for burst attacks.

Penalty: The Casting Rifles are constantly moving around, and begin salivating a putrid drool whenever the Terror Thumper anticipates their use. The stench can linger for 2D6 hours and is a great sign to detect and avoid Terror Thumpers. Gore Hounds have a +18% chance of smelling and detecting Terror Thumpers within 200 feet (122 m) in open ground, double that in caverns and tunnels. 100 feet (30 m) if the amalgam is in water.  

4. Shoulder Mounted Robot Grenade Mini-Guns (2): These rotary grenade launchers are typically preserved for use against machines or War Mounts, but will engage durable targets (soldiers in Host Armor, Biotics, Scarecrows and Technojackers) that threaten to stop Legion's primary objectives. 

Primary Purpose: Anti-Infantry and Assault.

Mega-Damage: A single fragmentary grenade inflicts heavy damage with a blast area of 20 feet (6.1 m). Volleys of grenades (2-5) inflict extreme damage, but each additional rapid fire grenade after the second only increases the blast radius by 10% (30% total).

Rate of Fire: Single aimed shot counts as one melee attack. A rapid-fire volley of 2, 3, 4, or 5 grenades from each Mini-Gun (all hitting within one second after being fired) counts as two melee attacks. Similar to the Casting Rifles, both Robot Grenade Mini-Guns can be fired separately or simultaneously as the same target  or at two independent targets. 

Maximum Effective Range: 1800 feet (548.6 m).

Payload: 200 rounds total. Each Mini-Gun is connected internally connected to its own 100 round disintegrating belt. Spent ammo belts are replaced every 1D6 hours by a Mechanic.

5. Reinforced Knuckle Spikes: All of the Terror Thumper's joints are reinforced, but its knuckles are not only reinforced, but also have four spikes mounted atop of the massive fist that deliver massive amounts of damage to armor and enemy barricades. These amalgams have safety protocols installed that make them reluctant to punch a Splicer clad in Living Body Armor for fear of critically wounding the fragile contents inside. All Biotics, Host Armors, War Mounts and Machines are fair game and are pounded with cruel intentions.

Primary Purpose: Close Combat. 

Mega-Damage: See Hand to Hand combat below.

Maximum Effective Range: Close Combat.

Bonus: Does an additional 1D6 M.D. to the usual Thumper P.S. punch/strike damage.

6.). Combat Tail: The Combat tail serves the Terror Thumper as a rear defense mechanism and is rarely employed otherwise.  

Primary Purpose: Close Combat Defense.

Maximum Effective Range: Close Combat up to 10 feet (3 m).

Bonuses: +1 Attack per melee round, +2 to strike, +2 to parry or dodge, +2 to disarm and +3 to pull punch. Only P.P attribute maybe added to the combat tail's bonuses, and only apply to the combat that involves the tail.


Special Notes
: GM's Please keep in mind, killing Splicers is not Legion's intention with the Slag Thrower. Forcing Splicers to frantically evacuate their armor and being caught vulnerable, however, is her ideal score. Most pilots lack the pain tolerance nor are willing to chance remaining inside armor that has molten metal burning through it. Not only does Legion catch the human but she is also able to salvage the burnt, but nearly intact yet abandoned, bio-armor and is the reason why this weapon is such a crude, yet efficient design.

Treatment to Flesh: The only ways to douse the molten metal and slag (will not stop the initial damage caused by contact) is to roll in dirt or sand for two entire melee rounds (30 seconds), run the metal slag off for one entire melee round (but takes double damage that melee) or to be doused with slag retardant oils or powder which cools it in 6 seconds/two melee action. Cool water is the next alternative which will cook the flesh from the chemical reaction (add 1D6 M.D. to the initial damage, but no duration thereafter. To properly treat the victim with water, drench the burn thoroughly with cool water to prevent further damage and remove all burned tissue. If the burn area is limited, immerse the site in cool water for 30 minutes to reduce pain and to avoid fluid build ups, which causes the affected tissue to become swollen and damaged. If the area of the burn is large, after it has been doused with cool water, apply clean wraps about the burned area (or the whole victim if needed) to prevent systemic heat loss and hypothermia.

 The depth of the burn depends upon the duration of overall, direct contact. The Ravager Cannon will certainly cause a Full-thickness burn which destroys all epidermal and dermal structures. The coagulated protein that the flesh creates gives the burn a white pus appearance, and neither circulation nor sensation are present (-4 to strike or parry with the burnt limb for 1D4 days or until properly healed). After separation of the dark scabs and dead skin, someone must properly debride the wound for all infectious materials and tissue. To debride a wound someone has to remove all materials that may promote infection and impede healing. Due to the nature of the burn, the molten metal once it begins to cool may appear as if it has eaten into the flesh and painfully grafted into the burnt tissue. During the debridement, such metal particles will have to be removed either by pouring small drips of the liquid generated by Spore Dischargers, using Bio-Tech enzymes (proteolytic enzymes), or intricate suction methods by Geneticists. However, the most common and most painful method is by severing the tissue before the nanobot plague reaction occurs immediately followed by treatment by a Saint. Due to the severity of the wound and the possibilities of metal slag and molten metal fragments within a fresh wound, even Saints will have a tough time healing such wounds properly (reduce the Healing Touch points by half and double the time required). 


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DeepAnemoia's avatar

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