BARD PAPER: VERA5004 | Home | Traveller | BARD | SARA |
PDC Bulwark
design by Eamon Watters
BARD PAPER: VERA5004 | Home | Traveller | BARD | SARA |
design by Eamon Watters
The goodlife of the Promise Defence Concert Grouping have prepared the PDC Bulwark
robotic vehicle for the Council's recent specification.
We have taken the basic chassis of the Naasirka M4 Slipper Starport Multibot and modified it to fulfil an area defence mission.
Before we discuss the Bulwark further - we must consider the likely mode of attack by the badlife infesting our orbital space. Scans have shown ships with tubes for the use of drop troops - these will undoubtedly begin the assault on our world. Freighters are also in the orbital fleet - these will undoubtedly land heavy vehicles for an assault on Star City. We have scanned for many microseconds though our historical databases and have found that purely armoured assaults fail disastrously in the absence of infantry troops. The destruction of troops in armour and in light vehicles is the goal of the Bulwark.
The Bulwark displaces 10 Kiloliters, is adequately armoured for it's role, and has sufficient weaponry to destroy vehicles up to light g-tanks. It has a top airspeed of 576 km/h when it's ducted fans and heplar are engaged, and 201 km/h on just the fans. It can fly NOE at 144 km/h on both propulsion systems, and 50.4 km/h on the fans. The Fans have an unlimited use, as they are powered from the units fusion reactor, which has a half a year's supply of fuel. The thrusters have just under three hours of fuel - but it is intended to only be used in burst mode. It has a high-efficiency contragrav system. Coupled the fans with it's EMM system results in a hard to detect combat machine.
It's main armament consists of the 12Mj Plasma Gun, which is mainly found in the Pyrrhus Grav Tank, a vehicle on which we have much data. Equipped with a point defence computer it can wreak devastation on descending drop troop concentrations. Space limitations mean it can only carry 80 PPC shells. Parallel with this is an extremely powerful laser gun, capable of cutting through 2.5 cm of superdense out to 560 metres. This is fed from a battery capable of powering 400 full-power shots - which is continuously topped up from the vehicle's 3.3MW fusion plant - also adapted from the Pyrrhus.
The secondary armament utilises the manipulator arms from the M4. The bays that contain the two light and two heavy arms have been extended to allow space for two 5cm TL9 laser pistols and two TL9 laser rifles respectively, including their power packs.
The robot also has a 30km area jammer for hit-and-run attacks on the enemy.
The robot brain is the larger and cheaper TL13 high autonomous robot brain. The higher performance variety was considered, but given the focused role of the machine was deemed uneconomical.
The operations envisaged are many. In addition to the aforementioned drop troop screening, it can act as a quick response striker on troops and light vehicles, engage craft in the atmosphere, and with suitable bases - engage in guerrilla warfare against an entrenched enemy. In this last mode it can be very effective, as all it would need to perform maintenance on itself would be M9 memory modules, which it can insert itself. It has more than enough excess power to recharge any robotic forces with it - and can even carry a robot of less than 1300 kg using it's arms.
We feel that this goodlife will excel in both fighting the enemy's forces and providing support to our own forces. Working within the 50MCr budget we can field 27 Bulwarks and buy an additional 6747 rounds of Plasma gun ammunition. We must stress that this design utilises commonly known TL13 technology, and can be produced completely here on Promise. Technical data follows.
| Arm | Volume | AGL | STR | Lift | Hit | UMD | Weapon | AMD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Light Arm | liters | 8 | 3 | 150kg | 12 | 3 | torch | 4 |
| Heavy Arm | liters | 5 | 5 | 500kg | 9 | 5 | - | - |
| Weapon | ROF | Dam | Conc Burst | Pen Rtg | Magaz | S Range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Mj Plasma Gun | SA1 | 104 | 11-15 | 1-2-10 | 80 | 350m |
| 0.4 Mj DEI Laser | 3 | 31 | Nil | 1-0-0 | 400 | 280m |
| Weapon | ROF | Damage | Damage Dice | Magaz | S Range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.04 Mj Laser Rifle | SA1/SA2 | 10 | 10-5-3-1 | 100/200 | 160m |
| 0.02 Mj Laser Pistol | SA1/SA2 | 7 | 7-7-4-4 | 50/100 | 90m |