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Splicers Badger APC

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Hi Da Fam,

Written by Splice Master, Chris "Slappy " Kluge, and Co-created with me, Chuck Walton II, the Badger Armored Personnel Carrier is a new Splicers® RPG War Mount that made it’s debut in the issue of a Rifter® #74, Adventure Article with all "Official" source material titled “Splicers: I Am Legion,” the 3rd episode published by Palladium Books.

Palladium Books Website: palladium-store.com/1001/produ… 

Below is the write-up which speaks for itself:

Badger (Armored Personnel Carrier War Mount)

 Often the most daunting aspect of assaulting the Machine’s installations is simply reaching the destination without suffering too much damage and without exhausting too many resources. Strike teams need to cross miles of hazardous territory to reach their objective, and once they get there, they still need to get past multiple fortifications and defensive weapon emplacements as well as legions of guards before they can hit their true target. To make matters worse, the teams generally need to travel light so that they do not weigh themselves down on the journey. Even when they do load up on ordinance, it is still far too easy to exhaust their munitions along the way. Librarian Michelangelo’s latest War Carrier design, the Badger, was created as a way to address these problems.

 The Badger was built to be the ultimate underground transport and breaching vehicle. Within this massive and seemingly solid beast is a hollow cavity that can hold an impressive number of armored troops and even some War Mounts. Its specially designed troop compartment is lined with special fluid filled bladders that inflate around passengers to hold them in place and cushion them from impacts during combat maneuvers. Being completely engulfed and immobilized by these bladders can be a little claustrophobic and unnerving at first, but the Badger possesses a special enhancement that quickly circumvents this little problem. To keep people from panicking, the bladders form a neurological connection with each passenger, allowing them to see, hear, and experience what the Badger does. The bladders naturally retract away from the passengers’ faces to prevent them from being smothered, and the air within the compartment is recycled quickly to keep it from becoming stale. The entire compartment design is experimental, but it has been well received in field tests. The Badger can engage in incredibly high impact and abrupt maneuvers without shaking up the passengers at all.  Plus the neurological connection keeps passengers connected to the world around them instead of locked away from it. Knowing what is going on outside of the carrier gives troops a significant advantage. They can prepare themselves for whatever threats they are about to face instead of blindly charging out into the fight.

While tunneling underground, the Badger’s eight powerful legs allow it to almost swim through the earth as it tears through sand, dirt, and stone at incredible speeds.  Unlike the Tunnel Rat War Mount, the Badger cannot create permanent tunnels. It was designed to burrow through the earth and let the dirt collapse behind it in order to discourage pursuit. The Badger possesses a pair of experimental organs in its body that break down carbon dioxide in the blood into useable oxygen. These Bio-Tech scrubbers enable the Badger to effectively hold its breath underground for up to twenty hours during transport missions. 

Ferrying troops beneath the surface like this not only allows strike teams to save their strength during the voyage, but it also allows them to haul along much heavier ordinance. This combined with the fact that underground transport circumvents hundreds (possibly thousands) of robot patrols, traps, barricades, fortifications, Sentry Towers, Waste Crawler gangs, alien predators, and rival Splicers means that these teams emerge from their protective cocoon at peak strength, ready to unleash a devastating assault on their real objective.

 Additionally, these strike teams receive some pretty impressive support once they deploy. The Badger is far more than just a transport. Michelangelo took the natural power and ferocity of normal badgers and increased them a hundredfold. Aside from a massive increase in size, he equipped his new War Carrier design with some of his latest Bio-Weapon innovations. He wanted the Badger War Carrier to be able to protect its cargo from any threat, and to provide heavy support once it delivers its payload. When the Badger first breaks through the perimeter wall of a target installation, it uses its plasma breath to clear out the closest threats. It then raises a point defense force field to shield itself from enemy fire (and from its own area effect weapons) before firing off a salvo from its shoulder mounted cluster bomb launchers. These weapons are similar to Pod Launchers, only on a massive scale. They can shower everything within a 100-foot radius with a thick blanket of deadly shrapnel. Finally, the Badger fills the room with a powerful chemical cloud to weaken and confound any remaining resistance before the troops come storming out. Against robotic targets, this chemical is a burning vapor that melts metal and other artificial materials without harming living targets, but the Badger can also unleash a special Bio-Toxin cloud that paralyzes organic technology during operations against rival Great Houses.

 As remarkable as it is as a breaching vehicle, the Badger War Carrier can be even more impressive and dangerous when it assaults surface targets. It possesses thick bone armor that protects it from harm while damaging anyone that gets too close, it has four razor sharp claws per foot that are each larger than a man, and its bite can cleave a War Mount in half. It can tackle targets directly with an excellent chance of winning or it can engage in a deadly game of cat and mouse that few adversaries have the ability to counter. Mounted along its snout are two Shrieker launchers. The Badger can quickly tag a target with these tracking rounds and then tunnel safely underground before the enemy can counter strike. It can then pop up again in a safe location and unleash a barrage of Organic Rockets or launch its experimental Millipedoes. These special Bio-Tech explosives can home in on a Shrieker round’s signal from up to two miles away with nearly perfect accuracy. The Badger can simply pop up and fire and then disappear below ground again and again until the target is destroyed often without ever taking a single hit. 

There have only been a handful of field tests so far, but at this time, it seems pretty clear that no faction on the planet possesses anything that can stop the Badger from reaching its objective. In time, N.E.X.U.S. will likely create robots that can tunnel through the earth after it, but until that happens, House Artemis should be able to wreak impressive havoc upon the Machine within this Area of Influence. Currently only two Badgers have reached maturity, but a total of ten are growing in birthing sacs right now and should hatch within the next five years. Once all ten are introduced into the field, House Artemis will cement itself as the dominant power within the region.

Class: Heavy Assault Carrier and Breaching War Mount.

Crew: One rider concealed within the neck.

Troop Capacity: The Badger can carry 30 troopers in Host Armor, 45 troopers in Living Body Armor, or 60 unarmored humans. Some War Mounts are also small enough to fit in the Badger. Typically the limiting factor is the size of the hatch. Each hatch is 10 feet (3 m) tall and 5 feet (1.5 m) wide. As long as the War Mount can squeeze through, it is typically not a problem (although a length under 15 feet (4.5 m) is preferred).

 

Speed:

Running: 60 mph (96 km) maximum, but normal cruising speed is only 35 mph (56 km). The act of running does tire out the War Mount but not the rider. The Badger can run at top speed for up to two hours straight before needing to rest. However, it can fight or trot along at cruising speed almost all day (20 hours) without needing rest.

Leaping: Not possible.

Digging: 35 mph (56 km) through sand, dirt, clay, rock or stone. Digging does not tire out the War Mount and it can dig an adequate hole to cover itself in 1D4 melee rounds. 

Swimming: Not possible. It sinks like a stone. The Badger can walk along the bottom at a speed of 20 mph (32 km) as long as it does not exceed its maximum depth tolerance.

Underwater Depth: Maximum depth is 1000 feet (305 m).

Flying: Not possible.

 

Statistical Data:

Height: 70 feet (21 m) tall at the shoulder.

Width: 50 feet (18.3 m).

Length: 110 feet (33.5 m) nose to rump, with a 32 foot (9.6 m) tail.

Weight: 30 to 35 tons.

Cargo: Can carry 10 tons in its internal compartment or it can drag up to 70 tons behind it.

Production Cycle: 5 year gestation period plus 15 year growth cycle. Only a 6 month gestation period plus 2 year growth cycle for the temporary generation.

Operational Lifetime: 70 year life span. Only a 7 year life span for the temporary generation.

Feeding: The Badger is a Carnivore. It needs to eat 1000-1500 pounds (450 to 675 kg) of animal matter each day, and may gorge on up to 3 tons at one time. After gorging, the War Carrier can go 2 -5 days without feeding and without suffering any ill effects.  

Color: The thick bone armor “hair” is a light tan in color on the body and black patches separated by a white streak down the middle of its head, face and muzzle. The eight legs are black. A second variation resembles a honey badger as the top of the Badger is off white and the face, muzzle, along the sides, legs and underbelly are solid black.

Sleep Requirements: As an artificially created organism, the Badger only requires 4 hours of sleep per day.

 

Other Data:

An unmanned Badger is able to operate independent of a rider using its animal-like intelligence and instincts to respond to any given situation. Badgers can be surly and temperamental beasts. A Badger will form connections with its handlers and other familiar humans, but strangers should tread lightly when entering its den. It can be very protective of its domain and may attack people that act too aggressively in its home.  Badgers quickly learn that robots are the enemy and will attack them whenever they get too close. Badgers have been known to come to the aid of their handlers and other favored humans, but they tend to ignore strangers in trouble unless commanded to do so by an Outrider or Packmaster.

Alignment: Considered Unprincipled or Anarchist. They fight for their own preservation or when ordered to battle on behalf of humans.

Equivalent (Instinctive) Skills of Note: Land Navigation (Underground) 90%, Excavation/Mining 85%, Hunting 70%, and understands the Native Language of the Great House that created it and one other common language at 70%. Recognizes robots and machines as enemies to be destroyed or chased away.

 

Senses and Features: Standard for War Mounts plus:

Enhanced Regeneration:

Seismic Sense: Can feel vibrations of earthquakes, thunder, explosions and even the approach of heavy vehicles, troops, and stampeding animals up to 12 miles (19.4 km) away. The approach of smaller beings can be sensed within 200 feet (61 m).

Oxygen Scrubbers: The Badger possesses a pair of experimental organs in its body that are able to break down carbon dioxide molecules in the blood and re-circulate the useable oxygen. This enables the Badger to operate without fresh oxygen for up to twenty hours. After this point, the scrubbers become overwhelmed and cease to function until they can flush out all the excess carbon. At this point, the Badger must get fresh air for 4D6 minutes while the scrubbers clean themselves out. In the alternative, if the Badger gets 2D4 minutes of fresh air every 10 hours, then the scrubbers can function at peak efficiency indefinitely.

Internal Passenger Compartment: The specially designed passenger compartment helps keep troops secure and protected during combat maneuvers. A series of fluid filled bladders swell around all the passengers to hold them in place and cushion them from impacts. The bladders can sense air being exhaled from living beings and hold back a few inches to prevent them from being smothered. This can be a bit claustrophobic, but these bladders also form a neurological connection with each passenger allowing them to see, hear, and feel everything the Badger experiences. In field tests, this connection to the world helped keep passengers calm and relaxed during transport. There are three exits for this compartment. One on each side and one just below the Badger’s neck. When the hatches are sealed shut, they are difficult to see and even more difficult to pry open.

Bone Armor: Each hair on the Badger’s body is actually a 3-4 foot (0.9 to 1.2 m) long bone spike. This thick layer of overlapping armor provides excellent protection, plus the razor sharp tips inflict severe damage to anyone grappling with the Badger or trying to apply a hold, squeeze attack, body block or pounce/leap attack to the War Carrier. Likewise, adversaries throwing a punch or kick at the Badger will inflict damage, but take major damage in return from the sharp pelt of spikes. 

Point Defense Bio-Force Field: While this shield does protect the War Carrier from enemy fire during breaching maneuvers, the main reason why Michelangelo included it was to prevent the Badger from severely harming itself with its cluster bombs. During the original field tests, these cluster bombs proved to be a little too effective when fired in tight quarters. The first prototype blinded itself and nearly blew its own head off the first time it practiced a breach. Now with the shield in place, a Badger War Carrier can unleash a devastating barrage of cluster bombs at point blank range without fear of injury. The shield may take full damage during the attack, but the Badger takes no damage. The shield naturally regenerates every minute. If the force field is depleted, then it cannot be reactivated for 12 hours.

 

Bio-Weapon Systems:

1. Cluster Bomb Launchers (2): The strange multi-barreled cannons mounted on each shoulder are capable of firing off huge salvos of cluster bombs. These weapons are typically used during breaching missions to clear a room of enemies before deploying the onboard troopers. The ammunition is similar to the seed pods used in Pod Weapons, only much larger. The arrangement of the barrels limits the effective range, but it greatly increases the area of effect. The wide arc creates a pretty good spread, and once the cluster bombs start detonating, they cover a huge area in deadly shrapnel. 

Primary Purpose: Assault.

Secondary Purpose: Defense.

Mega-Damage: A single burst inflicts damage to everything within a 60-foot (18.3 m) radius. Both cannons can fire off a massive dual burst that inflicts major damage to everything in a 100-foot (30.5 m) radius.

Rate of Fire: Each single or dual blast counts as one melee attack.

Maximum Effective Range: Can be launched up to 300 feet (91.5 m) away, but are generally used at point blank range (within 50 feet (15.2 m)). 

Payload: Each launcher grows enough cluster bombs for 20 bursts per hour (40 total); automatically regenerates.

Bonus: +2 to strike.

2. Plasma Breath: The mouth, throat, and lungs of the Badger have been modified to allow it to exhale a chemical spray that ignites on contact with air to create a powerful fire blast. The sheer size of the Badger makes for a far more devastating blast than normal.

Primary Purpose: Assault.

Secondary Purpose: Defense.

Rate of Fire: Can be fired once per melee and counts as an additional attack per melee.

Effective Range: 50 feet (15.2 m).

Payload: 18 blasts. One blast is regenerated every hour.

3. Shrieker Launchers (2): The Badger has a Shrieker Launcher mounted on each side of its snout. These special launchers are synced to the Badger’s eye movements, so they are always locked on target with whatever the Badger is looking at. The launchers are equipped with a safety mechanism that prevents them from accidentally firing into the snout of the War Carrier. If for example the Badger is looking too far to the left, then the right launcher disengages and all shots are fired from the left launcher. Once a target is tagged, the round transmits a special Bio-Comm signal up to a range of two miles (3.2 km). Any Bio-Tech weapon or device equipped with the proper receiver can then track this signal to its source and target it with incredible accuracy (even without line of sight).

 These armor piercing rounds burrow deep into their target on impact, which often enables them to survive a substantial bombardment and still broadcast their tracking signal. However, there is a possibility with each strike that the tracking round may be destroyed. For every 10 points of mega-damage inflicted in a single strike, there is a 01-05% chance the Shrieker round will be destroyed. This applies to each individual attack; it is not a cumulative total. For example, a Steel Trooper marked with a Shrieker round is hit with a volley of Organic Rockets. When the target is destroyed, the round is automatically destroyed as well.

Primary Purpose: Assault.

Secondary Purpose: Defense.

Duration: Once activated, a Shrieker round will broadcast its Bio-Comm signal for 4D6 minutes before it starves to death.

Effective Range: 1000 feet (305 m).

Bonuses: +4 to strike.

Payload: 10 Shrieker rounds per launcher (20 total). The Badger can re-grow one spent Shrieker round every 4D6 minutes.

4. Organic Rockets (50): Mounted beneath the thick bone armor on the back of the Badger War Carrier are multiple rows of Organic Rockets. This arrangement conceals the rockets and helps protect them from enemy fire. Half of the rockets are the common variety, and the other half have been specially enhanced to home in on the signal from Shrieker rounds. They both have the same basic capabilities, so the choice of which one to use is based on whether the target is marked or not. Once a target is tagged with a Shrieker round, the Shrieker-Targeting Rockets will hunt it down no matter where it goes. While this has its advantages, sometimes the Badger may need to attack an unmarked target.

Primary Purpose: Assault.

Secondary Purpose: Defense.

Mega-Damage: Major damage with a 10-foot (3 m) blast radius. 

Maximum Effective Range: 2 miles (3.2 km).

Rate of Fire: One at a time or in volleys of 2, 4, 6, 8 or 10. Whether a single missile or an entire volley is fired, it counts as one melee attack. Roll once to strike, either all the missiles in the volley hit or they all miss.

Payload: 50 rockets, it takes 6D6 hours to re-grow spent rockets. 

5. Millipedoes (8): Kamikaze Cruise Missiles have been indispensable to the war effort, but their suicidal natures make them somewhat easy to counter. These psychotic little beasts were programmed with an innate hatred of machines and a desire to sacrifice their lives in order to destroy the largest robot in sight. They tend to take the most direct route to their prey and rarely engage in evasive maneuvers. This often makes them rather easy to shoot down as they rocket towards their objective. Millipedoes are Michelangelo’s latest attempt to improve upon the concept of living cruise missiles. He realized that Kamikazes were most effective when they were tracking down the signal from a Shrieker or Squealer as opposed to when they were allowed to select targets on their own, so he built the Millipedoes to solely rely on the signal from marked targets. This gave him some freedom when it came to their mental programming. Since he no longer needed them to be suicidal maniacs, he could program his new creations to engage in more intelligent tactics. Ultimately, they are not trying to sacrifice themselves, they are simply trying to fulfill their all-consuming desire to find the source of the signal and stop it. This means they will avoid obvious threats on their way to their objective and will even hide and use stealth to sneak past dangers. They will creep through thick underbrush, climb walls, crawl through sewers, tunnel under walls, or even chew through obstacles to reach their goal. They may travel much slower than Kamikaze Cruise Missiles, but they are difficult to spot and of course, they can crawl right under the Machine’s anti-air batteries.  The current batch of Millipedoes are equipped with lower grade explosives during this phase of testing. If they prove to be safe and effective, then they will ultimately be equipped with the same explosive charge found in Kamikazes. The Badger can carry eight of these experimental Bio-Tech missiles within the launchers mounted in its neck. 

Primary Purpose: Anti-Building.

Secondary Purpose: Assault.

M.D.C. of each Millipedoe: 420 M.D.C.

Size: About 8 feet (2.4 m) long and 2 feet (0.6 m) tall. Weighs 350 pounds (157.5 kg).

Effective Range: Millipedoes could theoretically travel hundreds of miles before getting tired, but they typically are used within a 2 mile (3.2 km) range.

Speed: 60 mph (96 km) maximum, but normal cruising speed is only 30 mph (48 km). The act of running does tire out the Millipedoe. It can run at top speed for up to two hours straight before needing to rest for 1D6x10+30 minutes. 

Rate of Fire: Launching each Millipedoe counts as one attack per melee. 

Payload: 8 missiles.

Bonuses: +3 on initiative, +4 to strike, and +3 to dodge. Each missile has 3 attacks per melee as it tracks down its target.

6. Chemical Sprayers (4): As a member of the mustelid family, normal badgers possess an anal gland that can produce a powerful scent chemical like a skunk. Michelangelo liked this natural defensive ability and created an enhanced version that would allow the Badger to deal with any kind of pursuer, both living and robotic. He created one gland that could spray out a cloud of burning acid and another gland that could spray out a powerful Bio-Toxin that paralyzes any organic technology it comes into contact with.  They were so effective in tests that Michelangelo decided to add two additional sprayers to the front of the Badger so that it could use them during breaching maneuvers. The Burning Vapor cloud stays in the air for 1D4+1 melee rounds before it dissipates. The Tech Paralyzer spray dissipates within seconds of being sprayed. The Badger is automatically immune to this spray, but passengers need to wait until the cloud disappears. 

Primary Purpose: Defense.

Secondary Purpose: Assault.

Mega-Damage: Burning Vapor Spray: Inflicts 3D6 M.D. per melee round to inorganic matter for 1D4+1 melee rounds, but the cloud only inflicts 2D6 S.D.C. damage to organic matter. Tech Paralyzer Spray: Any mega-damage creature or Bio-Tech device exposed to the chemical must make a roll to save vs. non-lethal poison of 16 or higher or else by completely paralyzed for 2D6 melee rounds. The chemical has no effect on normal humans and other S.D.C. creatures. 

Rate of Fire: 4 blasts per melee.

Effective Range: Can be sprayed up to 50 feet (15.2 m) away and each blast covers a 300-foot (91.5 m) area.

Payload: Each Sprayer contains 3 blasts (6 blasts of each type of chemical total). All spent blasts regenerate every 24 hours.

 

 




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Date Taken
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DinoTheCharizard's avatar
is it just me or does the face resemble godzilla?