The AFV’s featured in DropTeam™ are manufactured by massive industrial factory spacecraft called LiveShips. LiveShips are a brilliant fusion of self replicating robotics and nanofacture technologies. They were created in secrecy during the latter part of the first exploratory wave after man gained the technology for FTL (faster than light) travel. It's rumored that the LiveShips were constructed in the unremarkable Wolf 87 system, an M5 star 20 light years from Earth. Several expeditions have examined the system, and the systems around it, and found nothing that would indicate that anything unusual happened in those systems.

A LiveShip gets its name from its self repair and replication capability, not from any sort of sentience. A LiveShip does have built in programs that many have mistaken for intelligence, and perhaps this is where the rumor of LiveShip sentience started.

The LiveShips have evolved many different generations of fighting vehicles over the centuries, sometimes making refinements to improve the vehicles, and sometimes adapting to the gradual loss of rare resources and higher knowledge (see History section). Exotic fighting vehicles such as the hover tanks with particle beams that were manufactured during the Rim Conflict have slowly given way to ever more primitive, practical designs such as tracked and wheeled vehicles with conventional weapons although they still appear from time to time.

All of these vehicles are unpressurized and exposed to outside air or vacuum, except for the tiny sealed compartments occupied by crew members. This limits the chance of any kind of catastrophic decompression in case of penetration by enemy fire.

They’re fueled by anti-matter fuel cells, giving them enormous independent operating capacity. A few micrograms of anti-matter can power a vehicle for weeks. These fuel cells are prone to combustion in case of penetration, though, so they’re usually placed behind as much armor as possible and loaded with only enough fuel to power the vehicle for the immediate engagement at hand, when practical.

All vehicles are armored with a nano lattice of carbon and iridium, giving very high effective armor ratings in terms of “millimeters of steel” measurement. Even the wheels of wheeled vehicles are composed of a matrix of carbon nano springs that weld millions of small pieces of iridium together into a flexible, but tough, whole.

So while the basic mechanics of the AFV’s produced by LiveShips have slipped steadily toward the simplicity of the past, using tracks, wheels, and guns, the underlying materials and sophistication of these vehicles are still so advanced that they can operate effectively on planetoids without atmospheres or in Earth-like environs with ease.

 

Note: All Vehicle info and systems below are subject to change and new info will be added periodically.

M4 Command Track - Generation T (Mercury)
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The Mercury is a mobile command & control center. The electromagnetic spectrum of the modern battlefield is ablaze with noisy signals caused not only by enemy jamming but also by the weapons and anti-matter fuel cells used by forces in the conflict. Effective command & control must, therefore, always be done from the front, within the short radius that fast, reliable communications can occur.

The Mercury is packed with powerful, redundant communications systems, ranging from traditional neutrino emitter/receivers all the way down to physical message torpedoes and ground induction devices which can communicate through vibration frequencies in the ground itself. These various systems are used in concert as circumstances dictate so that the Mercury is continually in touch with local friendly forces and with the intel reported by threat assessment AI systems among those forces.

 

R1 IFV - Generation C (Hermes)

This is a variant of the venerable Paladin platform that is specialized as an electronic warfare unit. The Hermes carries an integrated sensor jammer, providing all of the same capabilities as the deployable sensor jammer but on a mobile platform, opening a wide range of tactical options to well coordinated forces. The Hermes also features integrated short range air defense: an automated small caliber cannon that fires carbon lattice penetrators at a rate of 3,000 rounds per minute driven by fast, hardened AI systems that automatically engage enemy aircraft within its radius. The additional load of these extra systems severely hampers the speed of the Hermes compared with its progenitor.

R5 – Generation C (Shrike)
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The Shrike is a highly mobile, lightly armored strike and reconnaissance vehicle. This jeep is extremely vulnerable to enemy fire, but LiveShips have evolved the C Generation which sports an anti-tank guided missile system that can punch through thick armor. Missiles fired from the ATGM launcher are guided by the gunner throughout flight. This is a blessing and a curse, because it means the gunner must remain in line of sight of his target until the missile impacts. The missile’s velocity is very low and the ATGM launcher has a long reload time. The best defense against this weapon is to destroy the jeep before its incoming missile reaches you, or to duck behind terrain features to get out of the gunner’s line of sight.

 

R1 IFV – Generation A (Paladin)
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The Paladin can serve as an IFV, transporting up to 5 armored infantry in its crew bay, or can optionally be fitted with a recco electronics package in the crew bay for deep scouting missions. It balances light armor with good mobility. Its 20mm gun fires incredibly dense carbon lattice penetrators, yielding excellent results for such a small caliber weapon, but it is still relatively weak; it can’t even reliably punch through the front of other IFV's (though it can penetrate their weaker side and rear armor.) This is somewhat made up for by the gun’s high rate of fire. This makes the Paladin an excellent choice when shooting down air targets or lightly armored targets such as turrets and Shrikes. When facing armored targets, though, the Paladin’s only option is to try to get on the target’s flank or rear.

 

M7 MBT – Generation B (Thor)
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This is the most heavily armored, armed, and slowest moving vehicle available. The LiveShips evolved generation B to have even thicker armor than the original A Generation, at the expense of mobility. Its 120mm gun fires incredibly dense carbon lattice penetrators which will punch through anything except for the front turret armor of another tank (but it will punch through the front chassis armor – so stay hull down!) Its slow speed makes the tank impractical for flag grabs and scouting, but it is the mainstay for defending objectives or for spearheading an assault on a defended objective.

 

M9 Engineer – Generation A (Cutter)

The engineering vehicle is unarmored and has only small caliber weaponry for limited self defense. It has a digging blade that can be used to perform “cut & fill” dirt moving on the terrain. Engineers can be used to dig trenches to obstruct enemy movement, to construct revetments for friendly vehicles, etc. Engineers are also able to capture buildings that have autonomous turrets on those scenarios with such buildings and clear mines from the battlefield.

 

M8 Light Tank – Generation A (Apollo)
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This vehicle is virtually unarmored, but it’s outfitted with the same lethal 120mm gun found on the Thor MBT. It relies on high mobility and the devastating power of its gun to “outsmart” its more heavily armored cousin.

 

H1 Hover Tank - Generation A (Tempest)

Most Liveships have already lost the ability to construct military-grade hover craft, but a few have retained enough knowledge to build at least the simpler specimens, such as the lightly armed Tempest. This light attack craft compensates for low armor with high mobility, and is armed with a 10mm ion gun - a pale imitation of the large caliber "Hellbore" ion beam weapons that used to serve as the mainstay for fighting forces in The Rim. The Tempest's hover propulsion system is nearly as advanced as its higher-tech predecessors'; it uses fine particles of anti-matter for repulsion against any underlying surface, allowing it to operate equally well in atmosphere or vacuum.
However, its control of this process is crude compared with its ancestors so steep slopes and rough ground can often obstruct the Tempest.

 

H2 Hover Tank - Generation D (Hurricane)
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The H2 works on similar principles as the H1 described above. The H2 was evolved for a direct support role, its hover propulsion and heavy armor allowing it to keep pace with front-line troops and bring its high explosive, direct-fire artillery rounds to bear on the enemy. The Hurricane is traditionally used against dug-in infantry or enemy structures and fortifications.

M13 SP Mortar – Generation D (Hammer)

This vehicle provides indirect fire support to its team in much the same way that fire missions do. Unlike fire missions, this platform is always available for use without delay so it can bring its massive firepower to bear in a more precise way on specific targets. It lobs low-velocity, high-yield explosives (specs of anti-matter in limited containment fields.) These are high yield explosives, so using them for direct, close combat is suicidal. Due to the low velocity of the rounds, they are ideal for indirect fire over terrain and other obstacles from the safety of cover. This vehicle is unarmored and slow moving. Its only defense is to stay out of line-of-sight of the enemy.

 

D3 Dropship - Generation F (Viper)
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The Viper clearly illustrates the fluid nature of Liveship manufacturing evolution. Having long since abandoned armed aircraft, the Liveships have finally begun to recognize and adapt to the growing opportunity to once again use aircraft in a direct combat role. Though the Viper isn't armed, its armor is heavier than other dropships, and its systems are highly redundant, allowing it to operate under enemy fire. Its primary role, like all dropships, is troop transport, but the Viper is tough and nimble enough to move troops while under fire, directly at the front. Its long magnetic grapple allows it to nimbly snatch cargo while on the move, minimizing its exposure to enemy fire.

The Viper is a favorite basic platform for "after-birth" modification: some purely defensive, atmosphere-bound forces in The Rim have already successfully jury-rigged their own external weaponry onto the Viper. Many in The Rim see the Viper as evidence that Liveships are evolving toward once again manufacturing combat aircraft with their own integrated armament.

 

Dropship – Generation R (Meteor)

The Meteor is the result of many generations of evolution by the LiveShips. During the times of the Rim Conflict, when weapons of incredible technology dominated the battlefield, military aircraft quickly proved worthless in combat. Armed with particle beam weapons and advanced AI-controlled guidance systems, anything that could be seen could be instantly killed. The only way to survive in combat was to stay close to the ground, using terrain as cover and letting the ground itself provide background clutter that prevented the kind of instantaneous automated death that was consistently suffered by aircraft.

The LiveShips therefore evolved their aircraft templates away from armed combatants and toward simpler troop transport roles. Dropship's were evolved that were good at transporting ground troops down onto planetary surfaces at great distances from enemy forces. Ground forces would then advance overland to their target areas to engage the enemy.

The Meteor is the culmination of this evolution. It is capable of transporting troops from orbit into virtually any environment, including high pressure atmospheres under high gravity. It can operate autonomously for months and has enormous lift capacity. It is the lynch pin of mobility for all planetary assault forces in The Rim.

As the modern battlefield erodes into an ever more primitive environment, devoid of particle beams and advanced targeting systems, the old idea that armed aircraft are worthless no longer rings true. There are many in The Rim who are trying to actively coax LiveShips into production of the ancient templates that were used to construct armed aircraft. Others are simply working at modifying the existing Meteor chassis to support “slung” weapons after construction by the LiveShip (an incredibly difficult endeavor given the requirements of atmospheric entry.) Armed aircraft are therefore still rare in battles throughout The Rim, but not unheard of.

 

Deployable Turret (Anti-Aircraft and Anti-Vehicle Variants)

These defense turrets are fully autonomous. They will fire on any enemy unit that is not under the protection of sensor jamming, is within line-of-sight of the turret, and is within the turret’s effective range.

All of the autonomous turrets fire plasma bolts, but LiveShips have evolved two varieties of turret: anti-aircraft and ground turrets. The anti-aircraft turrets fire smaller plasma bolts at high velocities, enabling them to more easily hit air targets at the expense of having less penetrating power. The ground turrets fire large, powerful bolts for maximum penetrating power. This power limits the velocity of the plasma bolts, though, since high densities of plasma are difficult to hold stable.

Deployable Sensor

Almost all modern vehicle and weapon systems are powered by anti-matter, a design decision that is justified by its incredible logistical and tactical advantages. Its chief disadvantage, though, is that it emits a unique electro-magnetic signature that can be detected even through hundreds of miles of rock and, given sufficient time and powerful enough sensors, even across light-years of space. In practice, cost-effective sensors are generally limited to smaller, tactical ranges.

This deployable sensor detects such emissions within a modest radius of a few thousand meters and broadcasts anything it detects onto the team’s sensor network, making enemy units that are within its radius visible to everyone on the sensor’s team.

 

Deployable Sensor Jammer

This automated device broadcasts specifically tunes frequencies in the region of the electro-magnetic spectrum where anti-matter exhaust is found, canceling out any anti-matter emissions signatures which may be present, making it impossible to discriminate anti-matter emissions within its radius. This effectively jams the sensors of the enemy units.

Mines
Rapidly scatterable, dropship deployed anti-vehicle mines. Used mostly for area denial (mines are usually clearly visible) each deployment of mines covers a 500 meter radius and are triggered by vehicles passing over them.  Each mine holds a small high explosive fragmentation and shape charge. They are vulnerable to artillery and mortar fire and can be cleared by engineering vehicles.

 

 

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