Simon_Jester wrote:One wonders what the Dominators think of these Demon Planets.
Well, on the one hand Dominators want to kill and enslave everything that's not a "We" and a Demon Planet is certainly a "They." On the other hand, if left alone a Demon Planet can make a decent dent in all these unworthy aliens.
A Dominator Star Fortress, would have a chance, not a great one against Cormal specifically, but a chance. They have 20 million MDC, about as much as most Demon Planets can strive to have. They could manage an antimatter cannon alpha strike of 2-12 million MDC, than would have to wait 8 minutes for that to recharge. In the meantime they've got 5 thousand cruiser-scale guns (1000-4000 MD) and one thousand an order of magnitude greater (10000-40000.) Yeah, I'd bet on a Dominator against an average Demon Planet, though Cormal is a much tougher and trickier customer.
"Any plan which requires the direct intervention of any deity to work can be assumed to be a very poor one."- Newbiespud
I have several Rifts books, and although the game system is clunky, the game worlds are quite interesting. Some things that none of the books I have touch on are:
1. Techno-magic power armor, (the Phase World book mentions Noro psi armor IIRC).
2. Anything that's kind of between cybernetics and power armor - something like an implant or series of implants that allow you to "plug in" to an external suit to augment your abilities more.
3. Something similar to Shadowrun's smartlinks for guns and such.
4. Something similar to a juicer, but that only kicks in or is activated on-demand, instead of always being on.
5. I think the Mercenaries book talks about a few gasoline or battery powered powered armor suits - what about something that's e-clip powered or magically powered, (kind of touches on #1 above)?
Speaking purely about juicers, I think the key reason is that you can't get fundamental alterations to someone's physiology to make them a superman just with a one-time shot of drugs. Certainly not reversible alterations. So the juicer gets his superhuman physique from extended exposure to the drugs, rather than being able to flip a switch and get the benefits.
Well the Noro suit is just normal body armor with a psinetic crystal helmet that increases their psychic abilities. Warlock Marine and BloodBane armor each have a sort of spirit that encourages and helps thing work together, but only Cyborgs have ports for installing heavy armor on them and I can't think of anything like 40k "drill holes in torso to insert cables" power armor.
Every Cyborg with a weapon arm can mentally control it. I'm sorry, I don't know anything about Shadowrun or what you mean by smartlink.
I think there is magic powered armor in Federation of Magic, or was it one of the West books?
You could probably do something like that for Juicers but it wouldn't be the full package. There are tons of drugs that give you temporary stat-boosts, a Juicer is meant to be a human who operates at peak levels in all areas, 24/7. To achieve this requires not just a cocktail of drugs injected in just the right places at just the right times, but strict control over the body's hormones which is achieved through surgical implants.
Out it another way, you could inject super steroids, give it a couple minutes to take effect and be as strong as a Juicer for a bit. You won't be as fast as a juicer, as tough as a Juicer, as precise as a Juicer, and your strength will fade in a little bit while a Juicer can fight for hours on end. If you pick a fight with a Juicer, you'll be a red smear. In fact, Juicer Uprising has a small story about a kid who takes performance-enhancing drugs to get into a Juicer Bar. When the bouncer refuses him, he jumps her and dies immediately for his trouble, leaving her to shake her head and repeat that she was trying to save his life.
"Any plan which requires the direct intervention of any deity to work can be assumed to be a very poor one."- Newbiespud
[quote="Ahriman238"]Every Cyborg with a weapon arm can mentally control it. I'm sorry, I don't know anything about Shadowrun or what you mean by smartlink.
quote]
A smart link is basically a way to run a gun via remote or cable control, normally a cybernetic implant. It basically gives you a HUD inside your eye / brain which either gives you a direct view from the gun or a crosshair in your vision showing where its pointing. You normally also get a status update from the gun in your vision i.e. ammo, heat, IFF, etc. You can fire and action other functions such as ejecting clips, activating safety's by brain impulse. It can
Its one of the simplest cyberware add ons in shadowrun, there are lots of different versions but most of them give you a small bonus to hit in game.
Some also prevent others using your gun by the safety only cutting out if you are linked into it.
Ahriman238 wrote:Well the Noro suit is just normal body armor with a psinetic crystal helmet that increases their psychic abilities. Warlock Marine and BloodBane armor each have a sort of spirit that encourages and helps thing work together, but only Cyborgs have ports for installing heavy armor on them and I can't think of anything like 40k "drill holes in torso to insert cables" power armor.
Every Cyborg with a weapon arm can mentally control it. I'm sorry, I don't know anything about Shadowrun or what you mean by smartlink.
I think there is magic powered armor in Federation of Magic, or was it one of the West books?
You could probably do something like that for Juicers but it wouldn't be the full package. There are tons of drugs that give you temporary stat-boosts, a Juicer is meant to be a human who operates at peak levels in all areas, 24/7. To achieve this requires not just a cocktail of drugs injected in just the right places at just the right times, but strict control over the body's hormones which is achieved through surgical implants.
Out it another way, you could inject super steroids, give it a couple minutes to take effect and be as strong as a Juicer for a bit. You won't be as fast as a juicer, as tough as a Juicer, as precise as a Juicer, and your strength will fade in a little bit while a Juicer can fight for hours on end. If you pick a fight with a Juicer, you'll be a red smear. In fact, Juicer Uprising has a small story about a kid who takes performance-enhancing drugs to get into a Juicer Bar. When the bouncer refuses him, he jumps her and dies immediately for his trouble, leaving her to shake her head and repeat that she was trying to save his life.
Ah! Thank you for the replies.
Regarding the armor question - I was more referring to how a typical power armor operator would control the various systems within it via switches, controls, and voice commands, and was wondering if there were cybernetics that basically allowed a power armor user to do much of that stuff via simple mental control... like move around conventionally, but arm, aim, and fire weapons via mental impulses.
As for the juicer thing - I was kind of thinking about something that would still be surgically attached, but would only administer the various drugs as needed or on demand, instead of 24/7 - like I tap a button on it and get a feed of stims to keep me awake, or something to temporarily heighten my strength or speed as needed.
One other question - many of the books mention a "concealed weapon rod" - what exactly are those? Are they some sort of energized baton or something?
BTW, I was reading the 1st Source Book, and they have a thing were you can design a robot w/ a true AI - one of the optional power sources is a magic one, which I found interesting.
Ah. Well, that sounds like every cyborg and power armor. I honestly don't remember anything about the advanced triggering mechanisms, to run you run, to lift your arm do it, but nothing on how to fire jetpacks or weapons.
Definitely nothing like your conditional Juicer, though all the drugs that make a Juicer can be obtained reasonably easily, you just won't get the implants and auto-injected regimen. There are "japes" or European Juicers who take milder drugs that give less performance but no Last Call and are easier to kick.
A weapon rod is just a low-powered (usually 3-18 MD) energy weapon, could be a laser, ion blaster, there are plasma ones but they seem rare. But it's just a very concealable hold-out gun that can be easily stashed in special hidden compartments several cyborgs or robots have, typically in the thigh.
"Any plan which requires the direct intervention of any deity to work can be assumed to be a very poor one."- Newbiespud
Good stuff, ty Ahriman238. Regarding cybernetics in Rifts - do they ever specifically mention how they're powered? I know that many cybernetic weapons require external e-clips or power packs, so I'm assuming that whatever powers the implants themselves isn't powerful enough to also power weapons. I'm assuming it's some sort of long-duration battery or such.
Another book that had some interesting stuff was, I think, the Japan book, which mentioned a suit of power armor that was super compact, (to the point of appearing like regular body armor). I think it was called the "super spy" or something. But what stood out to me was that, IIRC, it has a small chest-mounted plasma gun in a tiny ball turret - I wonder if something like that would be linked to the operator's eye movements, for targeting purposes.
Several cyborg weapons use E-clips or other ammunition, but a full-conversion cyborg will have their own fission reactor good for ~20 years and any integral energy weapons will be hooked up to it.
"Any plan which requires the direct intervention of any deity to work can be assumed to be a very poor one."- Newbiespud
Like I said, Halthhag has been around the Three Galaxies a few times. He was particularly impressed with the power armor technology that would let frail mortals fight lesser demons on equal terms, and in a variety of environments that would normally kill said mortals, even fly. Yes, he decided he needed some of that, and ordered the creation of Bloodbane armor for his demonic mortals and mortal minions.
380 MDC, 12 ft. tall and strong enough to lift 2 tons. Can do 80 mph/128 kph in a ground sprint, and fly at Mach 4 in atmosphere, Mach 10 in space and can dive down to 3,000 ft underwater. A very minor demon is bound into the armor to power it and give it special abilities, including making the armor's power both physically addictive and corrupting. All the suit's special abilities are fueled by blood, like burning a pint of blood to regenerate the armor 40 MDC. There are 3 tanks on back, one in the belly, one on each thigh and arm for a total storage of 17 pints. To get fresh blood, each hand has 4 hollow syringe-like claws, and there are a number of holes dotting the armor that can draw fresh blood in via capillary action if the armor gets splashed. In a pinch, it can take blood from the wearer. Normal operations, life support etc. burn a pint a day. For a pint of blood apiece, the armor-demon can cast Superhuman Strength, Life Drain, Blood Bolt and Death Bolt, and possibly some low-level Demon Magic.
The armor has 9 mini-missiles and the nasty vibro-ax (4-24 MD) that Halthhag is giving all his melee fighters. But the main weapon is a "Blood Rifle" which is also widely seen among Halthhag's forces. The rifle operates on a similar principle to the armor, each pint of blood gets you 10 shots doing 20-120 MD with a mile's range. For backup, it has a laser doing 10-40 MD. Normally, the blood pulse runs on a 5 pint tank and the laser on a 12-burst E-clip, but both can be hooked up to the armor and fed from it.
"Any plan which requires the direct intervention of any deity to work can be assumed to be a very poor one."- Newbiespud
Alright look, it's a big Megaverse and sometimes accidents happen. Sometimes people get killed, and sometimes people turn into something pretty indistinguishable from a demon in appearance, powers and goals but isn't a resident of Hades or Dyval and isn't associated with either group. Experiments in magic, supersoldier experiments, cosmic radiation, sitting to close to the TV, any or all of these can create something suitably demon-like to stage a slasher flick on your backwoods village or colony, on your spaceship or sailing vessel. Not even getting into beings like the Hu Fen Pao, demonic survivors of ancient, now destroyed, hells.
These unaffiliated demons and demon-like beings were introduced in the Palladium Fantasy game as Creatures of Chaos which is the standard name throughout the Megaverse for 'demon-like but not living in a hell or backed by an army of it's kin.' In Chaos Earth (RIFTS prequel) they're called Chaos Demons. In PF you had Thin Ones and Winter Storm Ice Demons, in the Three Galaxies there are Plasma and Phase Demons, and naturally Halthhag has manged to recruit both.
Phase Demons
You meet enough spacers and you'll hear all the stories, Star Hives, Ion Storms, temporal anomalies. But the one that's always told in hushed tones is what happens when a ship goes to FTL with someone on the outside, or too close to an external hatch. Oh, more often then not the person is left shaken, but physically fine and in no greater danger than a potential lynching by their superstitious fellows. A third of the time, they die horribly but just 12% of the time something deep shifts inside them. The next time they take a jump they flicker and vanish, spending hours in total darkness and returning to find just moments have passed. The horrified crew cut the drives, but it's far too late and over a week's objective time (several decades to the subject) they fade out more and more often, longer and longer each time. Their bodies are mutated by the strange energies of the 4th dimension and they perceive more of the darkness around them as a vast and complex place. Inevitably they go mad from years of isolation staring at parallel lines that intersect every few feet and circles with sharp jutting corners. They become desperate to see a tangible, reasonable three-dimensional universe again, to touch another human being, to look into their eyes as they slowly die then devour their flesh. In short, they become Phase Demons.
Phase Demons are absurdly dangerous, but have trouble manifesting in our physical, third-dimensional world. They can only really pop onto a ship using an FTL drive, then linger for 10-26 minutes (double that if within a thousand feet of the FTL engines) stalking and killing the crew, leaving half-eaten corpses to inspire fear, before their strength leaves and they fade out to rest for days or weeks. Phase demons maintain a special connection to the ship they first transformed on, haunting it, and can always manifest aboard that one as long as they're going faster than light and the Demon has the strength. Dropping out won't save you but will probably lessen it's time. Besides the original ship, it's a vast universe and a Phase Demon isn't often near a ship at FTL, though Phase engines seem to attract them more often than other drives. They can also sometimes manifest near rifts, portals and ley line nexuses. Phase Demons can last 10-26 days in the lower levels of Center, and in mystically supercharged sights like demon planets or any of the hells.
Phase Demons have only SDC, 155-530, but they have a similar effect to Prometheans in their phased bodies. Most attacks pass right through doing minimal damage so SDC weapons do half damage, MDC do half damage after downgrading to SDC, magic and psionics do full damage and normal effect, but downgraded to SDC for damaging attacks. Phase Demons are vulnerable to phase weapons, which do double SDC damage. Decent regen, impervious to cold, vacuum, gas, disease and radiation. Phase Demons are ageless and immortal, destroying their apparent physical body just banishes them for 4-20 years.
Phase Demons have awfully good sight or equivalent sense and can't be blinded by darkness or light. They can sense any rift, portal, time hole, dimensional pocket, ley line nexus, astral projection, fragmented essence, FTL jump, 2nd or 4th dimensional being within a mile, but only in line of sight, and get supernatural strength and endurance. They'll have 3-7 Promethean Phase Powers including at a minimum, D-Phase and Phase Blast, with the others randomly chosen. They're also master psychics with Deaden Senses, Death Trance, Impervious to Fire, Impervious to Cold, Telekinesis, Empathy, Telepathy, Object Read, Sense Presence, See Aura, Mind Block and Telemechanics.
Somehow or other, Halthhag managed to allow the Phase Demons in vast numbers to manifest indefinitely, and they serve him from gratitude and fear of being sent back. Somehow this is linked to the Demon Planets, if you destroy either of the lesser ones, half the Phase Demons will fade out. Should you manage to destroy Cormal (luck with that) all of them return to the Fourth Dimension.
Plasma Demons
These ones fall into the "remnants of a destroyed and forgotten hell" category. Plasma Demons have been an on-again-off-again menace to the Three Galaxies for a very long time, since at least the late Second Age. True, their numbers are rather limited, but their power would rate them a Greater Demon if not for a sadly sub-par amount of MDC. They're extremely aggressive, love nothing more than a pitched, outmatched battle, which is probably how Halthhag was able to appeal to them.
42-240 MDC with good regen, impervious to heat and vacuum. Nightvision, see invisible, see UV and IR, glossolalia, supernatural strength and endurance, dimensional teleport, can speak in a vacuum by magic. Plasma Demons can fly in space at Mach 10, in atmosphere at Mach 6. They usually slow to match whoever is trying to fight them, to keep things interesting. No native FTL capability, but they can latch onto a ship's hull and ride it at superluminal. They can fling around 5-30 MD plasma bolts and manifest fields or walls of plasma that do 20-120 MD to anyone trying to pass through. The Demon has to drop everything to maintain the wall/field or it fades after 15 seconds. Plasma Demons have a deep connection to the elemental plane of fire, and can cast any 10 Fire Magic spells.
Plasma Demons really hate Deevils, Cosmo-Knights, Prometheans, and mortal spellcasters and they're very smart and tactically-minded, but they're not exactly team players. Luckily, General Halthhag has a plan.
Halthhag was so impressed with the UWWs bottled-demon missiles he just had to steal the idea. With Plasma Demons bonded in as a very intelligent and willing guidance system, these "Hellfury" missiles race through space at Mach 15 strike the enemy to do 20-120 MD for the fighter missiles, 400-2400 MD for the big anti-ship cruise missiles and then the two Plasma Demons manifest at random points in the ship and move immediately to their first objective, taking out comms and FTL. Then they can move on to further sabotage.
"Any plan which requires the direct intervention of any deity to work can be assumed to be a very poor one."- Newbiespud
I suppose the next logical step is the demon fleet. Halthhag has spent centuries trying to design proper ships, give them some more flexibility than Demon Stars alone. But that was a walk in the park compared to getting operators for them. Most Demons still operate on a decidedly medieval understanding of the world, distrust technology, and generally aren't going to be able to fly ships that well. Most of the ones that can, he needs to command the starships so they don't go blundering into ion storms. Finally he just had the fighters and shuttles given standard controls and flown by Demonic Mortals or mortal minions. The bigger ships run similarly to Demon Stars, partially powered by human sacrifice and the control panels are stone altars before crosses, meat-hooks and the like. A person is suspended over the altar and cut, their blood runs into a circuit-board/runic array pattern carved in the altar with the demon operators blocking some channels and permitting others. Original, if not the most efficient control system.
While the designs all originate from Halthhag, they existed in very limited numbers until a short time ago, when Halthhag 'tamed' Cormal and was able to grow the organic ships en masse.
Though I do have a minor problem. A whole bunch of artists have worked on the RIFTS books and generally done stellar jobs, really, kudos guys. But whoever they got to draw the demon ships and power armor has their own style, distinctly anime/manga. That's not worth complaining about itself, the ships look good, it's just such a jump from how the ships in the setting are normally portrayed, I have a bit of trouble imagining they inhabit the same universe.
Bone Scout
It took Halthhag a very long time, and many failed designs to come up with a proper starfighter. This was a failure, almost there but he felt it was a bit short on both armor and firepower. Instead of scrapping it like previous failures, he fitted it with a tiny Rift FTL drive, improved sensors and called it a scout. Bone Scouts (called Harbingers by their enemies, because they normally sniff around a system just ahead of a demon fleet or planet) usually operate in groups of 7. They have some of the best sensor suites available and can detect ships 30 million miles out.
540 MDC, regenerates 5-30 every 15 seconds and double that if it kills someone while healing. Can do Mach 10 in atmosphere, Mach 18 in space, putting it at the high end for sublight speeds. FTL is via Rift drive that can teleport the ship 15 light-years, but the ship can only make 4 jumps before needing to recharge at a carrier or base. It can cast one spell, Chameleon, as a poor-man's cloaking device 6 times a day, and for 4 hours so it really only needs to be visible while attacking, jumping or renewing the spell. It can clamp magnetically to asteroids or ship hulls, and has a hull-breaching atmosphere siphon.
The ship is armed with 3 dark-energy blasters doing 10-40 MD apiece with a 3 mile range. 20 mini-missiles for dealing with other fighters. Oh, and if it's used in a kamikaze self-destruct attack it does 1000-4000 MD.
Demon Skull Fighter
The fighter that was good enough. This craft has an odd relationship with the pilot. After a few flights the nose of the ship shifts into a skull of the pilot's species, with energy weapons firing from the eyes, and missiles from the mouth. When they've made some kills and bonded a bit better, the skull changes to resemble a lesser demon's. When the pilot and ship both become aces with 15 kills to their name, the skull becomes a Greater Demon skull. Squadron leaders get the fleshed-out face of the Demon Lord or lesser commander (usually Halthhag) they serve. If they can take their relationship to the next level, the pilot and ship fuse and become a Starslayer Demon.
850 MDC with shields 200 MDC to a side and regenerates 10-60 MDC every 15 seconds. Mach 6 in atmo, Mach 15 in space and unlike the Bone Scout, Demon Skulls can neither make escape velocity or FTL on their own.
Weapons include two Dark Energy (the eyes of the skull) blasters doing 20-120 MD each, effective range is 2 miles against small evading targets, double that against large and/or stationary ones. 20 Hellfury missiles and an EMP-like magic gun that can disable other fighters, shuttles and some of the smaller frigates 80% of the time. Larger targets (600+ ft.) will be completely unaffected. Duration is only 1-6 minutes.
Starslayer Demon
Right, so the demon part of the Demon Skull fighter is strengthened over time as it collects "essence" (the post mortem PPE burst) and it seems the Bone Scout can do the same. As it grows stronger, it influences and corrupts the pilot more until the pilot fully accepts it, and they fuse into one being. Typically, the pilot's mind is destroyed in the process, but an unusually strong-willed person can actually become the dominant mind and destroy the ship's. Either way you've got a living, vaguely dragon-like starfighter demon. Oh, Starslayers are demons native to the Three Galaxies with all that implies, if they die in the Three Galaxies it's for real, if they travel to another dimension and die they respawn greatly weakened in the Three Galaxies.
300-900 MDC, impervious to cold and vacuum, takes half damage from all energy weapons, and regenerates 4-24 MDC every 15 seconds. Starslayers can magically speak in vacuum, and fly at Mach 15, in atmosphere they're limited to 200 mph/322 kph. They have a dimensional teleport but it's not great, may take some tries to get it to work. They can see fighters up to 800 miles away and fire dark energy blasts that typically do 4-24 MD but can be increased in power by putting PPE into them through 5 levels up to 100-400 MD.
Starslayer demons are major psychics with Mind Bolt, Object Read, Super TK, Read Dimensional Portal, Mind Block, Telepathy, and Sense Dimensional Anomaly.
Starslayers can cast Chameleon, Armor Bizarre, Fire Bolt, Electric Arc, Demon Blade, Power Bolt, See Invisible, Micrometeorites, Magic Tether, Magnetic Boots, and Frequency Jamming. Superluminal Flight gives them faster FTL than virtually anyone, but they can't turn so it's a series of hops and refining their direction. Also get 8 more Space or Demon Magic spells.
"Any plan which requires the direct intervention of any deity to work can be assumed to be a very poor one."- Newbiespud
Another thing Demon Stars aren't great at is ground invasion, being too bulky for atmosphere, so Halthhag made this drop shuttle. The major feature is it can open a portal to Hades, allowing demonic legions to stream out like the world's evilest clown car. The thing actually has 4 decks, a small command center up top, one for flying troops to access the 2 roof hatches, one for space, and one with the main exit/entry ramps. Internal ramps allow vehicles access to all 3 lower levels.
4,200 MDC with shields 300 MDC to a side, regenerates 10-60 MDC a minute. The ship can do Mach 2 in atmo, Mach 8 in space, no FTL. The ship is armed with 8 point defense lasers (20-80 MD) and 8 mini-missile batteries with 40 missiles each. Each of the 6 access points has a door gun, a multi-barreled laser doing 4-24 MD. Also, the "crown" over the command deck is 4 heavy mortars for supporting the troops. 50-300 MD, 4 mile omni-directional range, but can only fire while the shuttle is firmly on the ground.
The Hell Bringer radiates a constant magic fear over a 60 ft (18 m) radius. 3 times a day it can produce a more focused and wider ranging fear effect, Stenc of the Dead (more or less magic tear gas) or open a 30x30 ft. portal to Hades. Barring the portal, the shuttle can carry 1200 humans or Demonic Mortals in a pure infantry configuration. Or a Mechanized company with 8 APCs, 12 power armor and 120 people. Or a typical demon brigade, 600 demons of various types supported by 18 field artillery pieces and demonic mounts.
Soul Barge
Soul Barges are support ships that can harvest the PPE burst from any death within 10 miles, and gather souls to be rendered down for energy within the same radius. Normally they hang back in a fight, then pick over the remains. Once filled up, the Barge acts as a tender for other demon ships, restoring FTL and magic spell uses, and accelerating regeneration. One Soul Barge can service 4 dozen fighters/scouts, 6 dropships, 2 fast attack ships, or a Demon Star. A Demon Bone Maw Carrier requires 4 attending Barges.
The ship is 118x260x398 ft, 36x79x121 m. 6,660 MDC with shields 500 MDC to a side and 10-60 MDC a round regen. Flight is Mach 4 in atmosphere and Mach 9 in space. FTL is dual drive, a 2.3 LY/hour Phase Drive, and a Rift Drive that does 10 LY jumps but has effectively unlimited uses if they tap their stored energy. Armament is mostly defensive, 4 conventional plasma turrets with 200-800 MD, and 12 point defense laser turrets doing 20-80 MD. As a last resort, the ship can self-destruct doing 10,000-60,000 MD for a 5 mile (8 km) radius and a tenth that for the 5 miles beyond, and then opening a Rift that sucks in everything for 15 miles and spits it out at a random point in the Three Galaxies, scattering fleets.
"Any plan which requires the direct intervention of any deity to work can be assumed to be a very poor one."- Newbiespud
The talk about the demonic stuff reminds me of another section of Rifts Mercenaries - Angrar Robotics (or something similar). They sell you an extremely powerful suit of "power armor" at a very low price, but what the user doesn't realize is that the armor become addictive, and it turns out to be a powerful, but inexperienced demon that's been molded into the shape of a suit of power armor. The deaths the user causes feed the armor, and the pilot eventually becomes fully ingrained into the suit. IIRC, it's an alien/demonic intelligence that thought this up...
It's a common thread in RIFTS that Demons and Deevils offer power, and make it addictive so they get more and more leverage to corrupt people. Easier to do that if the corrupting demonic influence is in a powerful magic item, and people are much less suspicious if your demonic items are disguised as high technology, power armor and starfighters and the like.
"Any plan which requires the direct intervention of any deity to work can be assumed to be a very poor one."- Newbiespud
Halthhag wanted flexibility and fast attack capability, though it was hard to convince demons to accept a smaller ship. An extra advantage is that these ships can land troops and provide air support. Crew of 76, with room for 160 demonic troops. The ships has mostly standard controls, but inefficient magic batteries mean they still need a store of captives to sacrifice for the rift drive and mystic portals.
8700 MDC with shields 1000 MDC to a side, regen 40-240 MDC every 5 seconds. The ship itself is 620 ft, or 189 m, long. Mach 15 in space, Mach 7 in atmosphere. Dual FTL-drive, a phase drive with 3.5 LY/hour speed and a rift drive that makes 10 light-year jumps. Primary weapon is 2 double-barreled Dark Energy turrets that do 100-800 damage apiece, backed up by 6 more conventional plasma turrets doing 200-800 by rapid-firing an enormous quantity of weaker plasma bolts. It also has a large missile launcher carrying 300 Hell Fury missiles, with 300 odd reloads in storage. 12 point-defense lasers do 20-80 MD each.
The ship also has a beaked prow for ramming, 600-3600 MD ramming damage at max speed. A small hanger carries 6 fighters and 3 scouts. It can open up to four 30 ft. square portals to other ships, but only at distances of 100 ft. or less, and it can only do so 3 times a day unless sacrifices are provided.
Demon Star
Already done this one, but I wasn't providing figures then. Demon Stars are the battlecruisers of the Demons, each is incredibly tough and formidable, which is how Halthhag is able to terrorize the Three Galaxies despite being vastly outnumbered in terms of capital ship hulls. Why, he's only gotten 300 off Cormal, though more are in the works.
Demon Stars are 2,000 ft. long with a crew of 453, and have 100,000 MDC, with shields 11000 to a side, regenerates 100-400 MDC every 5 seconds. Mach 9 in space, no atmosphere ability. Dual FTL drive, phase drive with 4 LY/hour and a rift drive that makes 30 light-year jumps.
The main weapon is the same Dark Energy weapon that every other demon ship has scaled down. Dark Energy rapidly ages and stresses metal and ceramics, making them a bit more brittle for follow-up attacks, but the main point is that damaged bulkheads cannot be repaired, only replaced. The Dark Energy Cannon is forward mounted and does 3000-18000 MD with a 200 mile range. There are 6 laser cannon of a cruiser range (1000-4000 MD) mounted 3 to a broadside. 2 missile launchers with 45 missiles each and 900 reloads, can fire volleys up to all 45, Hell Fury, antimatter, singularity warheads. 8 point defense batteries that do 20-120 MD and will disable any ship less than a hundred feet long for 2-5 minutes.
Demon Stars also have ramming prows, 1500-4500 MD for a ramming attack. Demon Stars can create small nebulae to conceal themselves and friendly vessels, can disable magic-based shields like the UWW uses, open portals to nearby ships and create large anti-magic fields.
Bone Maw Carrier
This particular behemoth was designed because demon fighters are relatively new, and the ancient Demon Stars don't have hangers for them. So Halthhag put together a super carrier.
The ships is 6636 ft long by 3400 wide and 2350 tall (2023x1036x716 meters) with a crw over 2,000 and 2400 ground troops supported by 50 artillery pieces, 300 power armor and 50 heavy mounts. 140000 MDC with shields 2000 MDC to a side and regen 100-600 MD every 5 seconds. Flight is Mach 10 in space, can't enter atmosphere. Dual FTL drive, a phase drive doing 2.5 LY/hour and a rift drive that can create fleet-sized rifts going up to 20 light-years away, or send a squadron of fighters 50 light-years.
Under each landing bay arm is a Dark Energy Cannon, doing 1000-6000 MD. There are 8 secondary laser cannon, 4 to a side doing 1000-4000 MD. There are 20 point defense railgun turrets doing 30-180 MD apiece.
24 Demon Fury ships can dock on the hull and be carried along. The central skull's mouth holds a hangar for another 6 Demon Furies and 6 Soul Barges. The carrier can harvest souls and death energy itself within a 5 mile range, but the Soul Barges make more efficient collectors. Standard fighter complement is 150 Bone Scouts, 350 Demon Skull fighters, and 100 miscellaneous fighters captured from their enemies or brought by their mortal minions. In addition to it's most special rift drive, Bone Maw carriers can interdict rift drive ships with a Close Rifts spell extending for 100 million miles.
"Any plan which requires the direct intervention of any deity to work can be assumed to be a very poor one."- Newbiespud
Alright, it's hard to have a Minion War without some, you know, minions. Now, most of the powers in the Three Galaxies are fighting themselves as unknowing proxies of either side. For instance, the demons kidnapped the Princess of the Georgia sector and framed CCW intelligence before selling her to pirates, destabilizing the region and causing an actual, open civil war.
But there are also minions who know what they're doing, and have intentionally signed on as irregulars. Many of these funnel intelligence or act as a fifth column with their respective governments and militaries, but some giht with whatever armor or weapons they could buy, borrow or steal. Often with nothing but a particular demon/deevil lord's sigil to mark their allegiance.
So let's see, humans are really numerous in the Three Galaxies, about 12% of the total population I believe, and have a long history as playthings for demon and deevil both. Neither side has much trouble finding human cultists, mercenaries and servants. The Wulfen are likewise divided between these forces and their own multiple legitimate governments. The aggressive and hyperactive T'zee of Mathus' World have boiled into space with all their forces, and split right down the middle fighting for each side. A large number of Seljuk and Kreeghor have declared for the demons. The demons have likewise snapped the majority of orcs, ogres, and trolls, which I admit I hadn't known were in the setting. Both sides have managed to attract just a couple disaffected dragons, prometheans, star elves and anvil dwarves.
And each side has recruited two entire races not previously seen in the setting.
Sparklits
Once upon on a time, on a planet denied the privilege of a name, there was a race of green crystalline cubes, all of whom were master psychics. They communicated by telepathy, arranged themselves in complex fractal patterns for ease of communication and thought themselves alone in the universe until a CCW human colony was established, and someone picked a crystal up. The crystal possessed her and was fascinated by this new mess of chemistry, emotions, sensations. The possessed girl brought over some friends, and next thing you know the whole colony, some 4,000 souls, had been taken over. The Consortium caught on a few months later, tried to negotiate for the safe release of the hostages, but all the Sparklits wanted was more hosts. So the CAF set up a quarantine around the planet and left a task force for the first couple years, then just warning beacons. That was a hundred years ago, and as the last hosts were dying the demons stumbled onto this world quite by accident. The sparklits couldn't possess the demons, which enraged them, but they could communicate and the demons agreed to remove tens of thousands of them from their world in exchange for service.
Sparklit aren't very good for long-term infiltration. They don't get the memories of their host, they're incredibly arrogant and shameless sense freaks. They also don't know or care anything abut their borrowed bodies' limits, the sort of controller that will jump from a great height, break a leg and try to walk on it. Sparklits can be removed from a host, but need to be tricked into withdrawing their minds into their natural forms or permanent harm, likely death, will occur. Otherwise the victim has no memory of their time being controlled.
The actual 2 inch/5 cm crystals have 4-7 MDC. Mind Melter-level psychic abilities, with enhanced powers of Telepathy and Mentally Possess Others. Their special telepathy has triple the normal range, circumvents all language barriers and can keep up to 4 people in a psy-link at once. Their mentally Possess Others lets them possess anyone who touches them unless a psychic or supernatural being.
Mercurials
On another planet, the demons found the ChangelingsFounders Mercurials, who were one great linked mind, a living ocean called the One. It looked like mercury but wasn't, okay, it's mostly mercury-based biology with some kind of silicon-based nervous system. Anyway the demons nearly destroyed the one but some humans in the party stopped them when the One formed a humanoid shape to communicate. The One was curious about the wider universe, and created many smaller, independent forms to go and explore the cosmos at the demon's side, eventually returning to be reabsorbed like living space probes.
125-550 MDC, can't regen but can heal rapidly by consuming MDC metals. Mercurials are totally fearless, immune to disease, to gas and vacuum and are pretty resistant to cold until it gets really cold (-200 F, -129 C) resistant to heat to a point (900 F, 482 C) takes half damage from lasers, explosions, falls, and any impact slower than a railgun round. They have limited shapeshifting, enough to slip through cracks, form into a puddle, reform when injured, sorm their arms into bladed or bludgeoning weapons. Supernatural strength and endurance.
At first glance, Mercurials seem emotionless, it's more that they're busy taking everything in. They're pretty brainless and gullible to start off with, but eventually will develop life experience and a little common sense.
"Any plan which requires the direct intervention of any deity to work can be assumed to be a very poor one."- Newbiespud
Alright, so let's talk about the Deevils. They've been active in the Three Galaxies longer, have infiltrated more of it, but are generally a lot more low-key. It's great for them that the demons are invading openly, because it lets them unite the Three Galaxies against the demons, and let the heroes do most of the legwork for them. The Deevils wouldn't terribly mind ruling the Three Galaxies with an iron fist, but they're fine with going back to the status quo where they slowly devour each star empire from within, the Demons need to conquer to win, the Deevils just need the Demons to lose.
With that in mind, the Deevils are only going to show themselves at crucial junctures, such as blunting the attack on Phase World. The Deevil fleet is tiny compared to what Halthhag brings, even ignoring the Demon Planets. Just a few dozen Infernal Stars, some experimental Naruni ships Decker slips them, and the 10% of the Warlock Navy that deserts when the Deevils make an urgent all-hands call during the Siege of Center.
Yeah. Turns out they penetrated the Navy a very long time ago. In fact, they've been making their own cursed addictive armor and passing it off as standard Warlock Marine kit.
The Deevil's leader, I'm sure I mentioned, is Corbin Decker, a Vice Executive for Naruni Enterprises. In fact, he's head of the Corkscrew Galaxy R&D division and has convinced the Board to sell him and his infernal friends experimental Naruni tech for a song, and a promise to return detailed data on it's combat-testing. Decker is an extremely intelligent Pandemonium, and unlike the Deevil Lords, he's seen this war coming for decades and arranged the Deevils in the Three Galaxies accordingly.
"Any plan which requires the direct intervention of any deity to work can be assumed to be a very poor one."- Newbiespud
Corrupted Warlock Marines. Some time ago the Deevils got several of their own working at the Academy, making the Marine Armor. Thousands of cursed suits came out, looking no differently from any other and over time corrupted the wearers. When the time came to openly join the Deevil forces and stop the Demons, the armor changed into something more appropriate and the wearers changed too. They're now a bit more Deevil-like, much stronger, faster, more agile with powerful pheromones. Horns and cloven hooves too, but not many seem to mind. Plus the armor is far more responsive than it ever was, they can even feel through it as a second skin.
500 MDC for the armor, 100 MDC Armor of Ithan shield, and regenerates 4-24 MDC a minute. Can run at 80 mph/128 kph and jump 25 ft. long and 10 high, double with a running start. They can run ten times as long without fatiguing. The armor can lift 1700 lbs. and survive water pressure up to a mile's depth. Add see invisible to what the armor's senors already do. The main weapon is a TK pulse pike (minigun with a telescoping bayonet)that does 30-90 MD on a long burst, 4-24 MD as a stabbing weapon. It needs to be fed PPE every 50 bursts, but can harvest the energy from nearby deaths. Oh, and it seems a really common way of ending a fight is skewering someone than firing into their guts point blank. The shoulders each carry 3 mini-missiles, and the armor has 6 spiky tentacles or animated chains (extend up to 40 ft.) for attacking, moving stuff, even getting around.
The armor lets can cast certain spells three times a day. Magic Tether, Vacuum Speak, Space Fire Stream, Micrometeorites, and Shooting Star.
There is a variant armor that flies, SAMAS-like at 300 mph/480 kph but has no altitude restriction and can do Mach 9 in space. The downside is it's reduced to 380 MDC.
"Any plan which requires the direct intervention of any deity to work can be assumed to be a very poor one."- Newbiespud
biostem wrote:The talk about the demonic stuff reminds me of another section of Rifts Mercenaries - Angrar Robotics (or something similar). They sell you an extremely powerful suit of "power armor" at a very low price, but what the user doesn't realize is that the armor become addictive, and it turns out to be a powerful, but inexperienced demon that's been molded into the shape of a suit of power armor. The deaths the user causes feed the armor, and the pilot eventually becomes fully ingrained into the suit. IIRC, it's an alien/demonic intelligence that thought this up...
Evil Persian God, actually.
Not an armored Jigglypuff
"I salute your genetic superiority, now Get off my planet!!" -- Adam Stiener, 1st Somerset Strikers
Stealth in space is really hard, sometimes if you're lucky you can pull it off. If you hide in a radioactive belt, behind a planet or star, or if the other side has a novice sensor operator. Generally though, in the race between sensors and stealth, sensors easily win and true stealth in space is virtually impossible. Well, Naruni Enterprises prides itself on delivering impressive capabilities for a reasonable price, and impossible ones to those who have a lot of money. They've been developing the Rapier Stealth fighter for a few years, ever since they discovered a material that scatters most sensor beams. Corbin Decker began mass production 2 years ago, and has been funneling the fighters to the Deevils while telling his superiors it's still in development. Mind there is a price, the fighter has some teething problems that could be worked out if he were open and had more people on the project.
450 MDC with shields 400 MDC to a side. Two seater deal with a pilot and option gunner/navigator. With active stealth systems the fighter is undetectable at a thousand miles, 50-50 at 300 miles and can only be locked on by targeting computers at 2 miles or less. Sadly, no weapons in active stealth, one of those problems a larger team could likely fix. Mach 16 in space, Mach 7 in atmosphere. The majority aren't jump=capable but there is a phase-drive variant, the NSF-119J, that can do 5.2 LY/hour.
2 particle beams (they couldn't adapt the stealth tech and plasma guns) doing 20-120 MD each at a two-mile range. 2 lasers that do half the damage but can reach to 5 miles. It has a special belly launcher that can accommodate all sizes of missile. Either 2 of the serious antiship missiles, a dozen long-range missiles, 2 dozen mid-range, 4 dozen short range or 96 mini-missiles. The fighter also has three retractable pods that normally house mini-missile turrets, each with 24 missiles. For recon missions, the turrets can be easily swapped out for enhanced sensor packages, a popular configuration for the jump-capable Rapiers.
NSF-1003 Espandon Frigate
A Naruni frigate that famously sold out within a week of it's release. Very popular with smugglers, pirates and system defense forces, this is an unapologetic gunboat, a cannon and missile launcher strapped to some over-sized engines. Decker was able to get less than 8,000 of these into Deevil hands, but that;s nearly half as many as are out there.
Oh, and it combines with the cruiser to form the Naruni Megazord, so it's got that going for it too, I guess.
5500 MDC with shields 1200 MDC to a side. 90x130x295 feet, or 27x40x90 meters crew of 30 with room for 36 passengers or marines. Speed is considered Mach 10 generally, but is capable of bursts of speed up to Mach 13, Mach 15 if you're willing to push the safeties. It can do Mach 7 in atmosphere, and land. FTL is phase-drive, can be pushed to 5.5 LY/hour but the standard is 3.5. Main weapon is a laser doing 200-1200 MD with a 50 mile range. This is backed up with 3 antiship missiles with thousand mile ranges and each can launch 20 missiles at one. 2 long-range (but smaller than the big missiles) launchers with 80 missiles. There are 6 laser-based point defense turrets, each doing 30-180 MD.
NSC-10003 Conquistador Cruiser
A tough assault cruiser with a breathtaking alpha strike that... can't generally be repeated for a while. The main gun, a Neutron Cannon, takes a while to recharge, and the Naruni have come up with an unusual solution. Conquistadors are normally sold in package deals with a group of Espandon Frigates for reasons that will become clear.
The ships is 321x260x998 ft, or 98x79x304 m. Standard crew is 340, enough for 4 shifts plus a 60 man security detail. There's room for 160 ground troops supported by 20 power armor suits and 10 mechs. 55,000 MDC with no shields. Conquistadors aren't built for atmosphere, do Mach 8 in space. FTL is via phase drive, 4.5 LY/hour cruising, 6.7 LY/hour if you don't mind straining things a bit.
The Neutron Cannon does 2000-16000 MD, and irradiates an unshielded target, killing off much of the crew and suppressing the regen of living ships like Necron Behemoths or Demon Stars for 10-40 minutes. In the surge of constant war, the radiation shielding around the Neutron Cannon needs replacing every 6 months or so. Fires once a minute. Secondaries include 2 antiship missile launchers with 48 missiles each, 6 smaller missile launchers with 70 missiles each, and 8 plasma cannon that each do only 100-400 MD, but out-range most starship weapons at 60 miles and 4 of them (and no more) can be brought to bear on a single target. For point defense the Conquistador has a dozen mini-missile turrets with 140 missiles each, and a dozen plasma miniguns doing 40-240 MD at a range of 6 miles.
The Conquistador has hangar space for 24 fighters. The Deevils usually divide these equally between Fire-Eaters and Rapiers.
Oh, and as I alluded before, up to 4 Espandons can dock against the hull of a Conquistador without blocking any weapons on either ship. These ships can share power so with a full complement of 4, the Neutron Cannon can fire every 30 seconds. Also, each docked Espandon's main laser cannon doubles in range and firepower and for each Espandon the Conquistador's sublight speed increases by one Mach Factor, to a max of Mach 12.
"Any plan which requires the direct intervention of any deity to work can be assumed to be a very poor one."- Newbiespud
Like the Demons, the Deevils have recruited lots of Humans, Wulfen and T'zee. But also some oddballs like the Lurgess, some Noro, and a large number of Silhouettes.
Star Hunters
The Star Hunters are a race of arachnid psychics who, six thousand years ago, went on a genocidal rampage against all humanoid life. They were defeated by a large number of Cosmo-Knights who built a grand alliance against them, then the Star Hunters destroyed their own world rather than let their technology and selves fall into the hands of humanoids. Less than 2% of the Star Hunters escaped to hide out in the great Big Black and they became a fairy-tale to all but the Cosmo-Knights. The Star Hunters were so dangerous because they watched Andromeda and created Nova Bombs, sorry, Starkiller Bombs.
Star Hunters may look like 10-limb arachnids, but they are much, much stranger. Silicon/methane based biology, free-floating organs in two sacks, and they come from a Venusian world with a 70% CO2 atmosphere and something like 500 atmospheres of pressure. You'd think there'd be little room for conflict, since a planet easily habitable by them is death to humanoids and vice versa, but they long ago internalized the need to eliminate all humanoid life as self-evident. It seems the Splugorth might have been the ones to make first contact two thousand years before the war. The Star Hunters say that the first time they touched a human mind, and on every occasion since they sensed our revulsion and fear for their kind, for anything different, a limitless greed and capacity for violence. They knew, then, that there could never be co-existence, that we would enslave, experiment on or exterminate them all unless they did unto us first. So they set out, not just for their sake, but for every non-bipedal species, to liberate the Three Galaxies from humanoid tyranny. Also because humanoid biology squicks them out as much as they do us. Well, everyone's the hero in their own story.
The Deevils stumbled, quite by accident on a hidden outpost of the Star Hunters and eagerly began talks, hoping for Starkiller Bombs. Showing an amazing capacity for self-delusion, the Star Hunters have convinced themselves that the Deevils aren't really humanoid but only take that shape to better mock and torment their victims. Well, it's that or hook up with the Mechanoids, and the Deevils are offering them the best shot at revenge (particularly against the hated Cosmo-Knights) they've had in a while. However, Starkiller bombs require massive energy to make, and rare resources they no longer have easy access to. All they have are 100 bombs left over from the war.
Besides the Starkiller Bombs, the Star Hunters are maybe 50 years ahead of the Consortium, technologically. There are, at most, 40 million Star Hunters.
Star Hunters stand 8-12 feet tall and weigh roughly half a ton. 130-280 MDC, if you're around one and can breathe then they're wearing 190 MDC "alligator skin" environmental armor, and they usually carry a spare suit. They can see a vast portion of the EM spectrum, including IR, UV and X-ray, though they have to squint for a several seconds to see through even thin walls. Can survive 3-18 minutes in vacuum and have Supernatural Strength. All Star Hunters are master psychics, equivalent to a Mind Melter but with the ability to take Bleeder powers too. They have a special variant of telepathy that has double the normal range and costs nothing to use.
Communication is a mix of ultrasonic screeching and telepathy, given 2-8 minutes they can figure out how to "speak" telepathically to any alien. They are vulnerable to sonic weaponry, and a particular pitch of noise can prevent their using psionics. This is almost exactly the same pitch as the scream of a woman (or high-pitched man) who just found an 8-foot spider.
"Any plan which requires the direct intervention of any deity to work can be assumed to be a very poor one."- Newbiespud
They're not made of rocks, just covered in bony armored plates. For that matter, they may look like big dumb brutes, but the Zangerine were one of the first races to make it to space after the Second Age ended. Bit of a problem for them, they were on the verge of FTL when a surviving Dominator appeared to enslave them as his janissaries. Now, the Zangerines had a culture going back millennia and a rigid caste system where, yes, the warrior caste was on top. But the Dominator decided his Zangerines had little use for Builder, Science, or Healer castes and eliminated the bulk of them. 210 years ago, the Zangerines managed to overthrow and kill their Dominator Overlord with help from the Deevils who sabotaged his Star Fortress. Of course, now their planet was strip-mined, 90% of their population was warriors, and they were immediately invaded by their neighbors. They never realized until it was too late just how much the Dominator had made them dependent on him in every aspect of life from technology to medicine to politics and now they were a people with no future but bouncing from one small war for survival to another. Until their allies the Deevils returned offering them a greater purpose once more, a great destiny and repayment of their debt all at once.
Zangerine stand 9-10 feet tall with 172-450 MDC, regenerates 4-24 MDC every 6 hours. They have nightvision and come from a heavy-gravity world, so they can make spectacular 20 ft/6 m leaps and cover ground quickly in bounding leaps on standard G worlds. Zangerine are strong enough to lift around half to 75% of a ton, and have a special ability where they can double their strength for just a few seconds, twice a day. Every Zangerine has retractable forearm blades, knife-like for most castes, short-sword length for warriors. Driven by their strength this can do 2-16 MD.
There are a couple of Zangerine Witches, however most make an effort to avoid knowledge of magic because studying the mystic arts removes their ability to increase their strength.
"Any plan which requires the direct intervention of any deity to work can be assumed to be a very poor one."- Newbiespud
Before I begin to discuss the various strongholds of the Minion War’s two REAL factions, We should really talk about how space stations are normally done in the Three Galaxies. See, the Three Galaxies is a truly expansive space opera setting, you can fight a Bug War in the Star Hive Quarantine Zone, help a Kreeghor officer with an experimental stealth ship defect, fight alien monsters that vanish and reappear wherever its least convenient like Alien, fight your way off a Forbidden (Demon) Planet, etc. There’s room to steal the plot of every sci-fi setting and still have original stories besides.
So, among their contributions to world-building the creators made an excellent table for rolling up the qualities of any alien species, just give them a name, and done. There’s a table for rolling the cargo of any random freighter, and a system for space stations. These are great gaming resources, my only complaint is they only include one to a sourcebook, maybe it’s an intentional marketing thing.
Now, space stations are really, really common in the Three Galaxies and any system inhabited by a spacefaring probably has dozens. Phase World has 16 city-sized stations and hundreds of smaller ones. There are several sizes of station, stations tend to be cylindrical or spherical. When I give a size, that refers to diameter in a sphere, length in a cylinder. Stations get points, determined mostly by size, referencing how the mass of the station is divided between systems and how much expense is put into its design and construction, everything above a minimal system takes points. A similar system is used in RIFTS Mercenaries for creating original mercenary units.
A small station is roughly half a mile to a mile (760-1680 m.) in size, and supports population of roughly 300, double in emergencies if you don’t mind cramping. 3-6 docking ports for small craft. 10,000-40,000 MDC and gets you 150 points. Good for com relays, research stations, military outposts, etc.
A medium station can run up to 17,000 ft. or 5,182 m, and can accommodate a quarter million people, again with the ability to double up in a crisis. At this point there’s room for a small shuttle bay and/or 7-11 external docking ports capable of handling cruisers. 100,000-400,000 base MDC and 300 points’ worth of space.
A large space station is 3-12 miles, or 5-19 km, in size with room for 2 million, again with doubling ability. It would be more, but these are usually heavy orbital industry or shipbuilding. By now the shuttlebay can accommodate at least half a dozen, and maybe a score. If there’s a shuttlebay, add 3-18 docking ports, without the shuttle bay there’s room for 6-36. MDC is 3 to 6 million, and there’s 400 points to play with.
The city-sized station is king, 20-120 miles, or 32-192 km, in size, do remember that’s length for a cylinder station, diameter for a sphere. Population of 10-20 million, again can double up if needed but it’s not really recommended. There will be docking bays that can accommodate cruisers, and at least 60 external docking ports. Base MDC is 20 to 50 million, with 500 points. Yes, space stations are that much tougher than ships, all that engine mass does make a difference however if reduced to 45% the normal MDC you can expect individual sections to lose pressure. Luckily the Three Galaxies races have been doing the space thing for a longtime for of course all stations, like ships, are compartmentalized.
Next is the station’s purpose. You get bonus points depending on what the station was built to do to account for in-built utility, but those points are earmarked for specific things. An industrial station, for instance, gets 20 extra points but they all have to be divided fairly between supplies and power systems. A military base has 40 more points, 20 for the station’s defensive weaponry, 10 each for supplies and internal security. Commercial stations get 40 too, 20 to independent businesses on the station, 10 each to supplies and environmental. Research Stations get 30 bonus points, 10 each to sensors, power systems and medical. Space Colonies get 20 for supplies, 10 each for medical and space for transients. Only government-run stations get 25 points for “whatever.”
After that, you get to the systems. There’s usually a free default state (no defenses, minimal life support, etc.) you upgrade by throwing points at it. The bigger a station gets, the more you’ll have to spend on ancillary systems, like power and life support.
The default power is nuclear fission and/or solar power. Solar panels need replacing every few years, and they’re a heck of a nuisance for ships trying to dock while a tempting target for attackers. Fission needs replacing every three decades and creates a constant stream of radioactive waste to be disposed of. Neither is useful for larger than a medium station. For 10 points you can upgrade to fusion, one clean reactor (50 year life) is all you need to power a small or medium station, 2 for a large and 4 fusion plants (40 points) is the minimum for a city-sized station. But wait, there’s more! Antimatter is the most common power source in the Three Galaxies and for just 20 points you can do the work of 4 fusion plants with one AM plant. Or you could try magic and get perpetual energy out of a bound elemental or greater demon, 40 points, be careful it never gets out. Finally, 50 points for an experimental or exotic power system, energy yield unknown, reactor life unknown, safety unknown, likely maintenance intensive.
Defenses are a touch more complicated, because you can duplicate them a lot. For instance, feed the shields 3 points for every 3000 MDC (500 to a side) you want from them, no limit besides how many points you have and are willing to spend. With a limit you can add 10%, 15% or 25% to the station’s MDC in armor for 5, 10 and 15 points respectively, and no more. Or you can spend 15 points for every 12 fighters you want attached to the station. Speaking of parasites, 2 points gets you 6 defense satellites with a point-defense weapon and 50 MDC apiece. 10 points for 4 satellites with 270 MDC and frigate-scale (damage roll x 100 range) medium weapons. For 15 points, get a heavy defense satellite with 450 MDC and a cruiser-scale (damage x 1000) heavy cannon.
Similarly, a point defense grid will set you back 5 points and means something different for each station class, 7-12 PD turrets for a small station, 9-24 for a medium, 18-48 on a large, 30-250 for a city-sized station. Or you can spend ten points and roll twice for turrets, or 15 points to triple down. For medium weapons it’s 20 points and 1-6 for a small station, 3-18 for mediums, 6-36 for large stations, and 20-80 for space cities. Small stations don’t get cruiser-scale weapons, medium stations get just one, large stations get 1-3, and cities get 2-5 for 40 points.
60 points for an elaborate magical defense like an illusion hiding the entire station. Or making the whole thing Impervious to Energy weapons. Rift jumping away from danger on demand, Armor of Ithan (3000 MDC applies to all sides) maybe add a bottled-demon missile multi-launcher.
Okay, next step is figuring out sensors, likewise important. The default option gives you radar and multi-optic telescopes good to 200,000 miles (320,000 km.) along with closer motion sensors and a handy collision alarm. Now, 20 points gets you enhanced sensors, really standard, which include radar, radio, every spectra of light, thermal, gravitonic, magnetic and motion detectors all good to about 3 billion miles, or 4.8 billion km. If you really want to splurge, 40 points for superior sensors, above and beyond what most races have, which do all the things the enhanced sensors do at 2-5 light-years distance, can detect approaching ships at FTL even if details will be sparse, and adds a lifesigns scanner with a 500 mile/800 km range.
If you’re feeling cheaper, 10 points buys you 1-4 scout ships whose patrol route can cover half the system. 2 points for 6 early-alert satellites with the basic sensors to hang out at your sensor limit. 4 points for 6 satellites with million mile sensor ranges, 6 points for 3 long-range satellites that can detect ships a billion miles out, and 10 points for one interstellar satellite with a one light-year detection threshold.
Then there were comms. Now the default com is ancient and obsolete. It only transmits audio, only transmits one way (pick radio, laser or subspace) is easily jammed and has only a 150,000 mile, 240,000 km, range. You can spend on relay satellites, they have the same points price, number and range as the sensor sats just above, which makes a certain amount of sense. Just 5 points to upgrade to Galactic Standard, with audio and visual, all three forms of com, and a range of 500,000 miles, or 800,000 km. 15 points to take the Galactic Standard com and upgrade it to an advanced com with a scrambler, translator and two long-range relay sats. For 40 points get an interstellar com with a 10 light-year range and a local advanced com with a system-spanning network of satellites.
The Seventh Commandment is remember always to honor thine grease-monkeys, for without them thou shall surely sucketh on vacuum. The default is to have station maintenance be a very low priority, there’s no dedicated maintenance team, people fix things around their other jobs. Simple repairs take weeks, there’s a 40% chance of a critical systems failure in a crisis, and after 25 years your pristine station will look like a crackhouse in space. 3 points nets you a small maintenance team that works at 85% efficiency (only 15% failure risk) and fix minor things in minutes, major repairs may take 3 days. 8 points gives you a large and experienced maintenance staff, well-acquainted with EVA work, that runs at 95% efficiency and can fix anything in a day or less if they put in overtime. 15 points gets you round the clock support from high level (99% efficient) engineers who can jury-rig a workaround for a damaged system in minutes and fix any problem they have parts for inside 8 hours. However, 100% efficiency (nothing ever breaks except by deliberate sabotage) is only possible if you spend 35 points on a vast cadre of maintenance robots, who can also fix major problems in half an hour or less.
Supplies is the portion that determines how self-sufficient your station is. Is there a reserve for emergencies? The default state recycles air but demands a supply ship every 2 weeks for water, food, spare parts, fuel and other bits and bobs. 10 points gives you the ability to fabricate clothes and simple items, recycle water as well as air and enough storage space to go 3 months or more without being visited, which is the base state for space colonies, military bases and industrial stations. 25 points for basically self-sufficient, growing your own food and manufacturing parts and most items, no bother to you if the supply ship takes 8-14 months, unless you needed to special order something. At 40 points the station produces its own medicine, parts, tools, weapons, entertainment, and spacecraft. The only reasons to even have a supply ship is to keep in touch with the galactic economy, obtain exotic things and maybe obtain reactor fuel depending on the type of power source you’re using.
Internal Security, because who is going to enforce law and order on your station? Who will repel boarders and catch saboteurs? Default is a tiny and untrained volunteer force. 5 points will get you 8-12 cops, who will probably train a militia of 12-24 individuals. For 10 points, put in a precinct house for whatever system’s law you’re in, or your own if in neutral space, MPs for a military base, and have dozens (hundreds in the larger stations) of professional cops on duty at all times. 20 points for a company to brigade (station-sizes again) of private security troopers, all professional soldiers, including 10% ex-special forces and 5% power armor pilots. 35 points for a similar-sized crack security unit with a couple centuries combined military and law-enforcement experience including 20% special forces or cyborgs, 10% power armor and 10% starfighter aces. For 10, 20 and 30 points respectively add a squad, platoon or company of mid-level mages and/or psychics to your security forces.
Appropriately, Security is next, measuring whether there are cameras, locks, alarms and a prison on the station. The default is, of course, none of the above and if you want to keep people out of somewhere post a sign or a guard. 5 points gets you a small security station, cameras covering the most crucial areas of the station (C&C, power systems and defenses) and a brig with 3-8 cells and two interrogation rooms. 10 points and you add keypads and alarms to vital areas and airlocks, ID badges must be worn in sensitive areas at all times, there is always a squad manning the security center which now has 4 interrogation rooms, 10-20 cells, a cafeteria, administrative office and locker room. You also get EOD equipment and bomb-sniffing animals or robots. 20 points to augment the above with magic, like cameras that see invisible, or auras or doors that can’t be magicked open. For 25 points you add DNA and iris-scanners to the security outside critical areas, plus a host of hidden cameras and alarms, and issue communicators and scanners to all security personal. By now the security center has grown to have its own command center, crime lab, firing range, and secure evidence lock-up to say nothing of the 48 cells, 8 interrogation rooms and 4 solitary cells. 50 points brings this to its final evolution, full-time monitoring of internal sensors, alarms on every external access way, full-body scanners at every airlock, docking port and important door and a dedicated security complex with 60-120 cells.
Eleventh on our list of station creation, we have the medical facilities. The default state is… you get a first aid kit! Congrats! 5 points gets you a sickbay with 4-7 beds, a real doctor, two nurses and 3 paramedics. For 10 points you get a full sickbay with 3 doctors, 2 surgeons, and a basic medical staff. At this point you unlock the ability to have surgery performed on your station, you also get real medical supplies, and again this is the default for Space Colonies who are obliged to sink at least 10 points into this. If you want to sink in 25, you can get an advanced medical bay with 5-10 doctors, 3-6 surgeons, 23-38 nurses, and 11-16 paramedics. You also get a mini-hospital with 40-90 beds, multiple isolation wards, an ICU, pathology unit and 3-6 medical research labs. A 40-point upgrade looks just like a 25 point one with the addition of 5-8 healing-focused psychics and/or mages. For 75 points you get a true hospital with beds for over 200 patients.
Environmental systems, because if you can’t cut corners on life support, where else are you gonna get points for a third squadron of fighters? The default gives you barely adequate air circulation, no gravity and one thermostat to control the temperature throughout the station. Spend 10 points and the station will rotate for gravity, give you air that doesn’t stink, and individual sections and private quarters can adjust their own temperatures. A more advanced system, for 25 points, gives you artificial gravity and duplicate 16 different types of atmosphere in different sections of the station. For 40 points temperature and atmosphere can be adjusted on a room-by-room basis with 100 atmospheric mixes. 100 points gives you the power to recreate entire ecosystems in each room, light, ambient noise, temperature, gravity, you name it.
Independent Businesses, your station may wish to rent or lease space to entrepreneurs, to help make ends meet. The default, of course, is not doing this. For 5 points you get 2-5 businesses, inns, restaurants, perhaps a general store. 10 points and you set aside a section of the station as a “trading post” for an open market and whatever businesses, primarily entertainment, can set up there. 20 points gets you to the “Marketplace” stage where you have a large mall-like area and several services (banks, a Laundromat, pawnshop, etc.) throughout the station. Expect 2-5 showings from the major Tri-galactic chains like Naruni Enterprises, 4-14 mom and pop places, and 100 or more retail shops. For 50 points, double all the numbers I just gave you and add significant salvage interests. At this point, a generous portion of the station is given over to private enterprise.
Finally, we have Transients. Lots of people use space stations as a waypoint, and sometimes they never leave. The more points you spend, the more of your station’s people live there full-time instead of passing through. Default is 40% of the station’s population are drifters. 5 points to downgrade this to 30% passing through or homeless. You can spend 10 points on serious job programs and get it down to 20%, or add free education for 20 points and reduce the drifters to 10%. With 40 points you can employ most of the ones left over as unskilled labor, mopping floors and so on and cut down the transient population to 5%. With 60 points you close the station to most visitors, and may literally run vagrants off your station.
So let’s try this out, with full and profound apologies to JMS.
Station: Babylon 5 Size: Medium, for the population. I think it’s actually a large by length. Operated by: Earth/Interstellar Alliance. Purpose: Diplomacy, though it’s also a military base and government run… I’ll say gov’ment. MDC: 375,000 Power Systems: appear primarily nuclear and solar, 0 pts. Defenses: Heavy Armor (20 pts.) double down on point defense for sure, 32 interceptors and 10 pts. Medium weapons (5 guns) 20 points, single heavy gun, 40 points. 4 squadrons of fighters, 60 pts. Sensors: primitive with scouts (who are also their fighters) 10 pts. Communications: Galactic Standard, easily, 5 pts. Maintenance: small team, looks like just the two guys, 3 pts. Supplies: limited self-sufficiency and stores, 10 pts. Internal Security: dedicated police force, 10 pts. Security: basic set-up 5 pts. Medical: sickbay, 10 pts. Environmental: 25 points for individually adjustable sections, still spins for gravity. Independent Businesses: Trading post (Zoccolo) 10 pts. Transients: 20% to fit in Downbelow, 10 pts. Total points: 325 Total points spent: 245
Fluff: The last, best hope for peace victory. Interesting place to visit, but watch your step, because no one here is ever exactly what they seem to be.
Now how about one without training wheels?
Station: the Judge’s Claw
Size: City-sized
Operated by: Transgalactic Empire
Purpose: Military Prison
MDC: 34.5 million
Power Systems: antimatter power system, 20 points
Defenses: sealed against internal magic use, Impervious to Energy, Medium Armor, 8 medium defense satellites, a point-defense grid (50 turrets) and medium weapons (20), 175 pts.
Sensors, advanced sensors with 6 advanced sats, 26 pts.
Communications: Galactic Standard, 5 pts.
Maintenance: skilled staff, 8 pts.
Supplies: prisoners grow food and produce basic items, 25 pts.
Internal Security: Crack troops with power armor and magic support, 65 pts.
Security: Most of the station space is given to the magically-secure prison, guards have top facilities, 70 pts.
Medical: full hospital, 75 pts.
Environmental Systems: Station holds prisoners of many worlds, with different needs, 25 pts.
Independent Businesses: couple canteens, clubs and a supply store, 5 pts.
Transients: Nil, 60 pts.
Total points: 540 Total Points spent: 539
Fluff: This behemoth, located in the Rura Hexae system, was originally constructed a hundred years ago to aid in the pacification of the mystically-powerful locals. A prison watched over by Silhouette mages and members of the Invincible Guard, sealed against magic use by anyone who doesn’t know the day’s passphrase. However, the size of the insurgency did not justify a prison of this colossal size and security, easily capable of housing 12 million prisoners. All the insurgent magic users in the entire Empire could barely fill a quarter of its cells. This and its position in Anvil near the Star Hive Quarantine Zone and United Worlds of Warlock led some to believe the Kreeghor were preparing to conquer the entire UWW. If this is true, something must have gone wrong because no invasion fleet ever materialized. So we have the most secure, most costly prison for mages anywhere known, and not enough magical prisoners to come near to filling it, though they have been able to fill it out with political prisoners.
See, completely made up on the spot, but I doubt you’d be able to tell it from anything written in a book. Whew, I’ve actually been meaning to get that down for a while, just to get some of the general tech-level out there.
"Any plan which requires the direct intervention of any deity to work can be assumed to be a very poor one."- Newbiespud
So i'm stealing the specs to B5 if it's alright... My GM enjoys setting up crossovers for us so I was thinking he might like them. Wanted to check with you first before just yanking them though.
