[BT] Another Infantry Design and SUPER fluff (long)
ghostwriter
middle of the periphery it was a retirement and resort planet for
several centuries. The resort still caters to the upper middle class
of the periphery states, but for the most part the colony has achieved
near self-sufficiency in the last century.
The original settlers were a low budget tourist corporation, Cheap
Trip, looking for an inexpensive colony that would be relatively easy
to terraform, the low gravity that made Happy Valley relatively
undesirable to most colonists was ideal for the elderly upper middle
class that Cheap Trip was targeting. The unfortunate name of the
colony was a result of a drunken promise of the CEO to his ex-
secretary/new wife.
Rather than pay to do any major bio-engineering for the purpose of
terraforming the company simple blasted open any and all existing
valleys to deepen and widen them, thus creating pockets of relatively
high pressure and gravity, the normal gravity of the planet being
about 0.5g the deepest valleys can achieve a 0.7g. Cheap solar
reflectors were used to pipe sunlight into the areas and maintain the
temperature at a comfortable level for an elderly individual, meaning
blazing hot to anyone else. Earth plants took well to the soil and the
valleys allowed for capture of what little rain fell. The deep valleys
made lakes and ponds possible in the low pressure and gave ample
access to geothermal energy. Guests could wear an oxygen diffuser to
counteract any possibility of pressure based hypoxia.
To further reduce costs Cheap Trip deliberately targeted populations
with minor disabilities that would be eased by the low gravity. Thus a
huge portion of its original colonists/employees suffered from various
skeletal disorders, dwarfism being one of the largest subsets. This
significantly reduced the cost of getting doctors, nurses, and skilled
technical people to relocate, since few prejudices existed, the
gravity greatly eased everyday life, ample medical care was available
for the more severe conditions, and for the little people a large
population meant it was cost effective to build a significant portion
of the facilities at a more appropriate scale.
About two centuries after founding the colony, Cheap Trip went
bankrupt, at which point the dropships of supplies stopped arriving.
This was a result of a power play in the court proceeding with Cheap
Trip's lawyers trying to play on the image of suffering elderly to
push for leniency on the huge amount of embezzlement that had
occurred. The only problem of course was the in the last 200 years the
employees had set up towns and basic manufacturing facilities to
supply odds and ends that were unrealistic to ship in on dropship.
Because of the high percentage of extremely educated individuals in
the original colonists, those facilities tended to be highly automated
and modular, thus when the media crew from the corporation arrived to
get footage of the suffering stranded tourists they were instead
greeted by a detachment of police before being allowed to film the
annoyed but otherwise perfectly fine tourists, their dropship was then
commandeered by that same police force, whom upon arriving back in
civilization presented the court with a petition claiming that Cheap
Trip had abandoned its rights to the colony. While the dropship full
of semi-retired lawyers worked on court briefs, the people of Happy
Valley prepared for the companies response.
Given the fact that all company assets were frozen awaiting the courts
decision, the cut-rate merc company was paid for by a few of the board
out of hidden personal money. They hit the colony with a lance of
old, poorly maintained mechs a handful of older hover tanks, and a
couple of aerospace fighters supplemented by infantry. Most of the
forces never reached the fight however, as the dropship attempted
insertion inside of the largest valley, they made a nasty discovery.
The colonists had improvised pillboxes dug into the sheer cliffs, the
low gravity and ever present cliffs having made rock climbing a major
sport in the colony. The dropship made it to the ground behind an
outcropping only to discover the vehicle bay doors were jammed and
inoperable without repair. Repairs that the captain was unwilling to
stay under fire to complete. The mechs and infantry were unloaded
with a promise that the tanks would be inserted once the dropship was
clear of the cliffs and could make repairs. However once the dropship
came out from behind the outcropping and attempted to run for higher
ground they came under much heavier, higher caliber fire, and while
they managed to get out of range they were so damaged that reinsertion
was out of the question. In addition no amount of argument could get
the aerospace pilots to fly into the valley after watching the
defenders nearly destroy their dropship.
Forced to stay away from the cliffs by fear of ambush, with the
infantry spread thin to fill in the gaps where the tanks would
normally have been, the company advanced on the largest city.
Eventually even the infantry was unwilling to get too close to the
cliff sides after radio activated charges triggered several rock
slides whenever the infantry tried to approach the pillboxes. That
left the mechs firing at pillboxes while the infantry covered the
mechs against traps and enemy infantry. The problem was that the
pillboxes aim was surprising accurate and almost entirely concerned
with the infantry, decimating them several times over while basically
ignoring the mechs. Attempts to return fire and to use suppressing
fire were disastrous, infantry grade machine guns were nearly useless
as recoil was the same but the troopers couldn't set their weight
against the recoil in the low gravity.
The first mech died as a result of a pit trap dug around the perimeter
of the city, the pit itself didn't kill it but the pillboxes dug into
the side of the pit trap didn't have much trouble. The merc infantry
swarmed into the pit trap trying to locate intelligence and to save
the mech, only to find that the pillbox was nothing but the slightly
widened end of a reinforced tunnel. A tunnel that was built for a man
the size of a terran child, and so next to impossible for an average
sized trooper to enter.
The incoming fire stopped completely once the mercenary force reached
the outskirts of the city, the assumption was made that the colonists
were unwilling to risk civilian casualties. The mercenaries quickly
captured corporate headquarters only to discover the city was
deserted, that is except for the large field guns that seemed to
magically appear out of the ground surrounding the headquarters
complex. The infantry realized that the whole city was a trap and
stormed the guns in a desperate break out attempt. The fire fight was
nasty and one sided, with the smaller natives crouching and shooting
with almost supernatural accuracy while the larger troopers/targets
worked desperately to control their weapons and return fire without
exposing themselves. The local troops would abandon a set of field
positions only to fall back to another waiting set, always keeping the
range open. They could do so knowing that the field positions were
basically useless to the enemy since the sand bags were too high to
fire while prone and too short to kneel behind. The few successful
attempts to close the range resulted in the local troops diving into
nearby tunnels, all of which zigzagged in the first few feet to
provide protection, while rendering pursuit suicidal.
The merc force surrendered in exchange for their testimony in the
court proceedings. Cheap Trip was forced to concede the colony and
most of its board was found guilty of embezzlement shortly after that
fact. The mercs later explained that after they were taken prisoner
they were able figure out how it was that the natives beat them so
easily.
By this point in the life of the colony the vast majority of the
colonists had interbreed and more than half were little people. The
decision was made to take advantage of that fact and dig tunnels
impassible to a fully equipped person of average size. Those colonists
that weren't small enough to be useful in the fight were assigned to
protect the tourists and retirees and to make sure no one attempted to
contact the mercs prior to the ambush.
Hunting and marksmanship were popular pastimes in Happy Valley, but as
a result of the advanced age of the retirees and guests as well as the
skeletal conditions that were common in employees, gyrojet rifles were
really the only weapons that were used. The lack of recoil meant that
physical strength was nowhere near as large an issue as marksmanship.
The lighter weight of the barrel and action along with the low gravity
allowed for a much larger weapon than would have other wise been
possible. The weapon of specialty was a 40mm rocket that was easy to
produce and gave extreme range advantages over normal ammo, without
recoil.
When the decision was made to petition for independence the factories
began to produce larger versions of the gyrojet system in preparation
for possible fighting. Every field gun was basically little more than
an aluminum tube and an ammo feeding system. The ammo was extremely
heavy mini-rockets that had been produced almost by hand. The result
was little of the larger ammo was available and so had to be saved for
use on the dropship and only used on the mechs once the shot was
pointblank and from ambush. The firing had stopped at the outskirts
not out of fear of innocents dieing but because the little remaining
ammo had to be loaded and transported into the city before the trap
could be triggered.
Game notes:
Happy Valley may be picked as an affiliation for a character rather
than the standard minor realm. The decision must be made at creation
if the character will be a "Big" or a "Little" as they are referred to
on Happy Valley. Only a "Little" may enter any military path on Happy
Valley although "Big" characters may become police officers.
Primary Language: English
Secondary Language: Any
"Big"
Attitude thresholds: BOD -1 STR -1 DEX +1 RFL +1
Bonus Skills: Rifle: Gyrojet +2, Climbing +1 Pick one: Gunsmith +1,
First Aid +1, Negotiation +1,
Bonus Traits: Poor G-Tolerance (1), toughness costs one point less.
Path Restrictions: may not enter military service.
"Little"
Attitude thresholds: BOD -2 STR -2 DEX +2 RFL +2
Bonus Skills: Rifle: Gyrojet +2, Climbing +1, Gunsmith +1, Pick one:
Negotiation +1, First Aid +1, Support +1
Bonus Traits: Poor G-Tolerance (1), Disabled (2) (dwarfism), Natural
Aptitude/Rifles.
Path Restrictions: none
Poor G-Tolerance forces a +2 penalty to all checks where resistance to
gravity and acceleration is required. Purchase of High G-Tolerance
cancels this but no native of Happy Valley may purchase a higher level
than normal of tolerance.
A MechWarrior trained on Happy Valley may use a small cockpit without
penalty after conversion to the appropriate scale. Any attempt to use
normal sized controls results in the small cockpit penalty.
Almost all mechs currently used on Happy Valley take advantage of the
large caliber gyrojet weapons. They are available in Machine gun, and
Auto cannons 2, 5, 10, and 20. The weapon weights half as much but
cost 4 times the price to manufacture due to craft shop production
facilities. The heat generated is also halved, but the shots per ton
are halved and the price per ton for ammo is increased by a factor of
10. Range and damage remain the same.
As a result the mechs most commonly seen are smaller, lighter designs,
almost always with an undersized ICE engine to prevent undue stress to
the frames in low gravity. Weapons tend to be AC 20 with relatively
small loads of ammo and mechanical jump jets. All mechs have
converted small cockpits. Any average sized MechWarrior attempting to
use the controls takes double the normal penalty.
Field guns are extremely common due to the limited availability of
Mechs, and aerospace assets are almost always hired fighters since few
natives can handle the acceleration stress of flying. Military grade
gyrojet weapons are also available in larger caliber. Weight of the
weapon is halved and the cost increased by a factor of 10, damage and
range remain the same and shots per reload are halved, cost per reload
is also increased by a factor of 10. This has one major effect in
that crew requirements of a weapon are decreased by one step to
reflect the lighter weight of the weapon. So a portable machine gun is
no longer encumbering, a semi-portable is encumbering but no longer
requires a gyroscopic harness to handle, and a support machine gun can
be handled by a gyroscopic harness. The recoil of the weapon is also
reduced by one to reflect the low recoil of a gyrojet round, although
recoil compensators have no effect on the accuracy of the weapon a
gyroscopic harness functions as normal. Grenade launchers may be
purchased in the same way with a Heavy Launcher no longer being an
encumbering weapon. An existing weapon can not be converted to a
gyrojet firing system, the weapon much be manufactured to take the
rounds. Few automatic weapons are manufactured due to the high cost of
ammunition. While technically possible, manufacture of a semi-portable
autocannon was rejected due to ammo concerns by the military, so only
a skilled and extremely greedy gunsmith would be willing to attempt
it, and only at a huge price.
Manufacture of automatic weapons is almost always to the scale of a
"Little" and few non-military gunsmiths would dare manufacture them to
the scale of a "Big" since that would be a dead give away that they
were making them for illegal sale. Expect to pay extremely high prices
in the rare event you are able to locate such a gunsmith. Attempting
to fire an unmodified gun requires a +4 penalty, but a field expedient
modification on a TN 14 Gunsmith check can reduce that to a +2
penalty. Full conversion requires a TN 14 check by a Gunsmith and
Technician: Ballistics.
The standard long arm is a 40mm gyrojet, AP and high explosive rounds
are also available for this weapon. This weapon is freely available
with proof of citizenship and is available in both sizes. The weapon
weights 5kg fully loaded.
40mmGyrojet-RIF-D/C/C-6-3d6-B-45/150/340/700-5-3000/50-No AP red. for
ext. range
Infantry armed with these weapons do damage as standard rifle infantry
but may make use of the called shot rules. The low carrying capacity
of the average Happy Valley trooper coupled with the heavy rounds
means that a platoon only carries enough ammo to engage the enemy 10
times in a given encounter. Due to the poor tolerance for space
travel, Happy Valley does not hire out its troops and will only rarely
contribute troops to join anti-bandit operations.
David Damerell
>Almost all mechs currently used on Happy Valley take advantage of the
>large caliber gyrojet weapons. They are available in Machine gun, and
>Auto cannons 2, 5, 10, and 20. The weapon weights half as much but
>cost 4 times the price to manufacture due to craft shop production
>facilities. The heat generated is also halved, but the shots per ton
>are halved and the price per ton for ammo is increased by a factor of
>10. Range and damage remain the same.
If this is possible, why doesn't everyone use them? The 'Mechs you will
save by being able to mount half-weight half-heat autocannon cost a lot
more than pricey ammo.
At the very least, there should be a critical space penalty, the
traditional balancing method for munchkinTech.
--
David Damerell <dame...@chiark.greenend.org.uk> Kill the tomato!
Today is First Stilday, March - a weekend.