Okay, let's wrap this up:
The
NG-11F Red Hawk is Northern Gun's answer to the Coalition SAMAS and Flying Titan. Not quite as tough or fast as the SAMAS, the Red Hawk makes up for it in armaments. Six mini-missiles mounted under the wings, with twin vibro-blades on each forearm mated with a laser or pair of mini-missiles. A railgun rounds out the loadout. NG also has an underwater variant, the
NG-AX15 Blue Hawk, which switches the railgun for a powerful Ion rifle and mounts mini-torpedoes for missiles.
The
NG-XF17 Ironwing is Northern Gun's heavy aerial suit. About as tough as the Samson Missileman (give or take), the Ironwing is relatively slow, but carries lots of weapons. The main weapon is a heavy particle beam rifle backed up by a head laser. The boxes mounted behind the shoulders are a combination of missile and grenade launchers that can fire at enemy flyers or bombard ground targets. For close combat, vibro-blades on the forearms can rake enemies on flyby attacks, and for heavier foes, a buzzsaw is mounted on the left arm.
That's about enough for NG vehicles and mecha. It's not all of them, of course, but if I did that, I'd be here all summer.
Okay, a word about weapons:
Before the Coming of the Rifts, the German corporation known as Triax(yes,
that Triax) found itself in dire straits. It was formed to develop a usable hovercar, but was beaten to the punch. It floundered for years until someone discovered, well, Mega-Damage material(or Unobtanium alloy if you prefer). Tough as a main battle tank, but extremely light, and even, as it later turned out, Ragnarok-Proof. Eventually, weapons had to be developed to defeat these wonder materials.
The most common small arms on Rifts' Earth are Lasers. Lasers are almost entirely silent, and designed to fire in short beams. In the time of Rifts, most weapon manufacturers actually install noisemakers into their weapons, for the sake of customers who don't like their weapons to be so quiet. If you want Pew-Pew, you can have your Pew-Pew. But if you don't mind killing in silence, you can always turn it off(most military and wilderness scouts do). Nearly every weapons manufacturer on Rifts Earth makes laser weapons, some exclusively.
Second to lasers are Ion weapons. Ion weapons, as far as I can tell, fire a stream of charged ions at the target. They tend to be just a little shorter-ranged than lasers, with a similar increase in damage. Northern Gun and Triax have a large selection of Ion weapons, and make the most use of them out of anyone on Earth.
Both Lasers and Ion weapons have pulse variations, which fire a burst of two or three shots per pull of the trigger, spaced a fraction of a second apart.
For most militaries and adventurers, the most common heavy weapons are Plasma Ejectors and Particle Beam weapons. Both are powerful, but short-ranged. Plasma has the additional perk/weakness of also being affected by any weaknesses or resistance to fire.
Railguns, in Rifts, are pretty much shorthand for "Megadamage Machinegun". Most fire in bursts of 10-30, and are equal in power to heavy energy weapons. Actual machineguns, on the other hand, do exist, but usually need to have explosive or ramjet rounds to do mega-damage without rather long bursts. Even then, they seem to be more powerful than 20th/21st-century machine guns of the same calibur.
Grenades are pretty common in Rifts' Earth, both thrown and rife-fired. In addition to the usual explosive, smoke, or gas grenades, the most advanced grenades use warheads that generate/release intense but short-lived blasts/sprays of plasma.
The most prolific explosive, if you haven't been able to tell by our previous vehicle/mecha descriptions, are mini-missiles. Mini-missiles are about the size of a LAW or RPG, and have ranges of up to a mile. They typically come in five varieties:
Standard High explosives have decent firepower, but only a 5' Blast radius. They tend to be cheap, however.
Fragmentation missiles have the same damage as High-Ex, but a 20' blast radius. These are typically used for antipersonnel or anti-missile purposes.
Armor-Piercing missiles have a tiny blast radius, but do good damage against armor. Especially in groups.
Plasma are the king of Mini-Missiles. They hit harder than Ap missiles, but have a blast radius close to that of a frag missile.
Smoke is smoke.
In addition to these, you also have fusion blocks(really powerful time bombs), and MD Plastique and Dynamite.
A selection of Northern Gun weapons.
Coalition weapons (mostly new models)
Wilks' Laser Technologies is the foremost maker of light-based weapons and equipment. Aside from their signature sleek, black ceramic weapons(with variants designed to look like 19th-century revolvers and rifles for the Western market), Wilks also makes electronics and components (many NG and Coalition weapons and vehicles have Wilks' parts in them), and more esoteric weapons, such as prototype laser blades, and even laser grenades. Wilks' will sell their guns to whomever will pay for it, so their weapons are illegal in Coalition territory.
Wellington Industries is in many ways Northern Gun's friendly rival, based in the neighboring Manistique Imperium. WI primarily focuses on projectile weaponry, from conventional SMGs, assault rifles and machineguns to modern grenade and missile launchers.
Chipwell Armaments is the proverbial "El Cheapo" brand. Power Armor at tenth of the price, and a tenth of the quality. Battery-Powered, most weapon systems being bolted-on infantry guns, and MDC less than even Northern Gun's lightest powered armor. One of their suits (the Warmonger, pictured) is actually plain ol' SDC (albeit about three times as much as a modern tank).
Iron Heart Armaments was a manufacturer based in the town of New Kenora. Rather than guns and mechs, they focued on conventional tanks, ships, and aircraft, such as the Iron Hammer MBT, Iron Trident attack boat, and the Air Castle flying fortress(pictured). Free Quebec, back when it was still part of the Coalition States, actually purchased a small number of IHA watercraft to patrol their holdings in the Great Lakes.
Ultimately, Iron Heart Armaments fell victim to their own success. Their heavy gear like the Air Castle and Sea King terrified the CS, especially since they made such weapons available to other states, particularly those whom the CS planned to attack or annex later. So they invaded New Kenora in a massive dawn raid and shut IHA down. A few people managed to escape with the plans to some of Iron Heart's vehicles, but at the moment, they're reduced to a band of pirates looking for a new place to start again.
Finally, there's the
Black Market. A Mafia-like criminal organization that not only deals in stolen and used gear (to say nothing of traditional criminal activities such as prostitution, drugs, and contraband), but actually manufacture their own products. One of their factions,
Bandito Arms, operates out of Area 51 and legitimately sells their own weapons, such as the Big Bore series of explosive projectile weapons.
