Futuristic Juggernauts: Mechs vs. Bugs (Lore)

[Gwalihir]

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JUGGERNAUTS: THE CORSTIM INVASION


At first we thought they were just bugs we were fighting: big and dumb, but prolific. Then we discovered they were being driven by the Corstims (cortical stimulators), and that changed things completely. Looking like a big land-based octopus, the Corstims ride the bugs and take over their brains through their tentacles. Only about one in four Soldier bugs is ridden at any one time: the rest of the bugs are just herded by hive mentality. Bigger bugs almost always have a Corstim rider. And if we shoot a bug with a Corstim on them, the Corstim just jumps ship to the next bug.

The bugs come in many different types. We don’t know what hellworld they came from, but arthropods must have took it over, land, sky and sea. Many have carbon fiber exoskeletons, resistant to small arms and rifles. Most are big enough that if you’re facing them with just a rifle, you’re dead anyway.

The most common are the Soldier bugs. They’re about fifteen foot tall mountains of crazy geometrical shapes with spidery legs and eyes on a center stalk that also serves as their brain stem. It’s hard to tell exactly what is an appendage and what is a body part on these guys, but a few good shots to the center stalk will take them down. Be careful, though: they spit a dozen arrows at a time, about six times a minute. The arrows won’t penetrate Kevlar or metal plating, but anything less and you’re shish-kebab.

Soldier bugs swarm in huge droves, overwhelming by sheer numbers. But they are subject to rifle fire, flame, explosives and hydrochloric acid. Their exoskeletons are not carbon fiber, thank God, but very tough. A squad of Mechs with heavy ballistics (.762’s or greater) or heavy lasers can cut through a drove pretty well, without letting any stragglers through.

Next most common are the Mama bugs. They look like gigantic ants with big butts covered by skirts. No telling if they are actually the mamas who breed the soldiers, but each Mama can carry about 50 to 60 Soldiers under their “skirts.” Four Mamas can carry one drove (200 to 240 Soldiers), drop ‘em on your doorstep and hightail it. They don’t stick around for a fight, but if they get cornered they spit chlorine and chlorine gas: if the chlorine doesn’t eat through you, the gas tears up your lungs.

The Mamas are covered in carbon fiber, so a 10mm cannon is the minimum ballistic requirement to make a hole in one. Seeing as they are as long as two train boxcars, it takes a lot of holes to take them down. Heavy lasers are good, too, and incendiaries can cook them in their shells, but not fast enough to stop their counter-attacks.

Tanker bugs are as big as Mamas, but they are all combat. Lobster shaped, with strong legs and powerful pincers, they rip apart buildings and installations, chewing up and spitting out rocks either as large projectiles or several smaller pieces like an LB 10x gun. Their shells are corded carbon fiber thick enough that 10mm shells cannot penetrate, nor even heavy lasers. 20mm shells, railguns or PPCs are required to do damage to a Tanker. Note that a Tanker’s body is subdivided internally into separate chambers, so even blasting one with an explosive shell will only take out one chamber, not kill the whole creature. Even head shots are no guarantee: the secondary brainstem, where the Corstim driver resides, can control most functions even without eyes or antenna, going by feel. Taking out a Tanker is usually a matter of blowing off the pincer arms and firing a buttload of high explosive 20mm+ rounds right down the front, blowing out section after section until they are gutted.

Fire bugs: Looking like giant rhinoceros beetles, they spit ignited napalm, and squirt it out through glands in their sides. Naturally they are themselves fire resistant thanks to asbestos-like fibers interwoven in their armor and a superior circulation system which channels away excess heat. With their great horns they knock down any structure in their way, then burn the remains. They are resistant to Laser and PPC blasts, and to ballistics under 20mm. Fire bugs are somewhat smaller than Mamas and Tankers, only about the size of one railroad car.

Plasma bugs range from “small” (the size of one boxcar) through “medium” (length of four boxcars) to “huge” (a dozen boxcars in length). “Small” plasma bugs fire shots of superhot plasma out of their butts at approaching enemies, hot enough to cook any but the coolest mechs (50 pts). “Medium” plasma bugs fire a cone-shaped spray of plasma 500 meters long across the ground, wiping out ground troops and cooking most mechs (30 pts). “Huge” plasma bugs aim their shots into outer space, blowing away even battle-hardened Warships.

These bugs are generally very well armored (they have to be to contain the heat of the plasma), and the only real chance to damage them is when they are open from just firing a blast. Lasers and PPCs are useless: generally only high explosive 20mm rounds will damage a small plasma bug, 5” explosive shells or larger for mediums, and nukes for huge ones.

Ankle Munchers: These “bugs” tunnel through the earth, following large vibrations such as the tread of mech footsteps or the firing of high ballistic weapons. They attack the sources of such vibrations, seeking food. They are used to heavily carapaced prey, so they will work their way up a mech’s leg, crushing what they can. They resemble gigantic centipedes, approx 40 feet long.

Destroying an ankle muncher is mostly difficult because they will be entwined around a friendly mech you don’t want to hurt. Fire can draw them off, even medium lasers can burn them enough to force a retreat without doing any significant damage to the mech underneath.

Air Scouts: these bugs look like dragonflies with 20 foot wingspans and mantis-style forelegs. They are occasionally observed high above the battlefield: analysis suggests they have excellent vision. Since they seem able to hover like a dragonfly, they can be quite sneaky and swoop in suddenly from a concealed location and strike. The forelegs are natural slashing weapons, and can take off a man’s head with ease.

Of course such capabilities hold no threat to a mech, except for the fact that the hovering scouts are communicating to the ground bugs every location and move they make.

A few rifle shots can dispatch an Air scout: at close range a shotgun can cripple its wings.

Air Warriors: these resemble gigantic bumblebees able to drop acid bombs, incendiary bombs, poison gas bombs and probably other organic munitions, as well as strafing the ground beneath them with carbon fiber darts over a foot long. Most of these attacks can do no damage to a mech, but can cripple support personnel.


This concludes the preliminary list…

Additions to the Preliminary list: newly discovered species…

Scorpion Bug:

About 80 feet long (two boxcars), the Scorpion bug has both pincers and a tail that are deadly weapons, even to mechs. The pincers are in fact strong enough to cut through a mech’s arms and legs, though probably not through the main body. The tail functions as a giant slingshot, throwing large gobs of a thick, sticky black acid that eats through view screens, lenses, sensors of many types, just not most metals. These blind the mech (are fatal to unshielded humans) and leave it unable to continue combat.

Scorpion bugs are well armored: an AC10 is the minimum requirement to break through their shells.

Trapdoor Bug:

Often found inhabiting the tunnels created by ankle munchers, the trapdoor bug secretes an ooze that sticks to dirt and debris on the ground, then solidifies and creates a cap which, when flipped over, conceals the tunnels the Trapdoor bug lives in. Trapdoor bugs come in all different sizes, including ones that create man-sized holes that trap unarmored troopers to ones that create holes big enough for mechs to fall into.

The bugs have crushing mandibles which they use to immediately cripple their prey, pincers to grip them and prehensile tails that help draw the bugs themselves deep into the hole backwards while pulling their prey in after them.

While trapdoor bugs are strong and tough, they are not well armored, relying on the dirt around them to protect them from injury. If one can draw them out into the open (not an easy task!) they are fairly easy to kill.OOC

 

[Gwalihir]

The year is 3180. For a history, follow Battletech Canon up through 3060: after that there was an attempt to rebuild the Star League, first under Melissa Steiner, then more successfully under her brother Victor. Victor brought in a brief Golden Age, but after his passing the League fell to corruption and avarice. The Nation States tried to take over again, but collapsed from the removal of the power and authority of the Star League.

Now most worlds function on their own, either under a one-world government or several. Aetrobus 5, an inhabitable planet in the binary Aetrobus system, has several governments which have been at war but are now cooperating in the face of a new common enemy: the bugs. The Planetary Defense Force has been created to deal with this threat, and the unit is being pulled together from several different nations.

For centuries, the nation states warred against each other with mechs used either for shock and awe or trial by combat, bidding against one another for ownership of worlds. Along with other military technology, these mecha were abandoned when the nation states collapsed. Some planets including Aetrobus 5, where we are located, were lucky enough to have resources including mech factories still intact. While original mechs were only found in the range of 20 to 100 tons, mostly bipedal, on Aetrobus 5 they have also expanded to 200 and 300 tons mechs resembling centaurs, with a rear gunner in a bubble back in the tail section. One mech has been built with eight legs at 800 tons, specifically to fight off the newest invasion: gigantic arthropods generally called "bugs," which seem determined to invade the planet.

We have no starships, so the battle must take place on the surface, mech vs. bugs, until one or the other is wiped out.

Aetrobus 5 is lucky enough to have a full range of climates, oceans, mountains, forests, deserts and all, at livable temperatures for humans. Maybe that is why the bugs like it too: who knows?

 

[Gwalihir]

As far as human level tech, I am thinking the less invasive aspects of Cyberpunk 2020 should also be available: personal kevlar body armor, vibroblades, nice guns, needlers, laser rifles but not laser pistols, no cyberware.

Any human factions built on race, religion, cultural background, political ideology or almost any other factor are temporarily suspended in the face of global invasion. Any rational human can appreciate that another human being is far less an opponent than a multilegged giant arthropod whose only goal in life is to kill you. And while there are a few insane people out there, their views have become "unpopular." There are historic divisions, but at this point that's all they are: history.

Yes, you may create a faction for a background, preferably based on the factors above, with the understanding that hostilities are suspended for this time.

Elements of all Earth cultures are available on Aetrobus 5, so you can be whatever racial background you like. We should discuss exotic choices, just so we understand what differences 1160 years have made.

 

[Gwalihir]

THE RECONSTRUCTED REPUBLIC OF AMERICA

For all its many flaws, the original United States ran for over 250 years as a model of freedom and equality. The Reconstructed Republic of America (or RRA) borrowed the model of government, establishing Executive, Representative and Judicial branches with the same checks and balances as were applied in the original. They also borrowed the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and virtually all the Amendments which had been in place up until the time of the Nation’s demise. As with her predecessor, this made the RRA highly desirable to new immigrants, and it became a melting pot of various races.

Having delineated a continent rich in resources, the RRA grew to wealth and prosperity at an accelerated pace. And having taken heed of the conditions which brought about the ecological ruin and downfall of Earth, the RRA planned out their industry with great care not to do extensive damage to Aetrobus 5.

At times conflicts have broken out between the RRA and either the Germans or the Romans, sometimes for ideological reasons, sometimes for land resources, but often less for any real reason than to justify the existence and sustenance of the military. Mecha served beautifully in this capacity: expensive to create and maintain, popular with the citizenry, capable of creating military heroes, usable in a wide variety of roles.

The RRA engages an all-volunteer military. Those who have served in the military (or certain other forms of civic duty such as medical, firefighting or police officers) earn the rank of citizen, with the right to vote and several other special privileges. Those who do not serve in some civic capacity remain civilians, with slightly lesser privileges.

The result is a highly mechanized militia, machines taking the brunt of most damage while the soldiers are generally well protected. The RRA produces some of the largest mecha in the field, including 200 and 300 ton centaur mechs. There are rumors of other experimental mecha in the works, but only a select handful of individuals know the truth or falsehood of such rumors. Other specialized military vehicles such as hovertanks, conventional tanks and aircraft are produced regularly.

 

[Gwalihir]

JAPAN, LLC

The continent claimed by the Japanese contingent is somewhat smaller than the American continent, but far larger than the original Japan. More of a multi-conglomerate, its government is the union of the boards of directors of all companies in Japan with over 200,000 employees or/and dependants.

Each such company is allowed to send their CEO and one board member per 50,000 employees to represent the company’s interests in voting. In a nation of 30,000,000, this puts approximately 300 representatives on the Grand Board at any given time. Companies and the 50% of citizens employed by companies not on the Grand Board have no say in governmental processes other than voicing public outrage through strikes and riots when rules seem too unfair to the masses. Generally the government is wise enough not to incur public wrath. When they overstep their bounds, the strikes and riots are generally organized in a civilized manner, avoiding damage to innocent properties and businesses.

The Grand Board selects an Elect Board of twenty-four members and a Chief CEO, all elected from former Grand Board members who have diversified their interests to several different corporations in order to assure their objectivity in making laws. Members of the Grand Board may make suggestions on laws, but it is the Elect Board who hash out the details and make a final presentation of proposed laws to the Grand board, who must then approve of any given law by a three fifths majority.

Some of the larger corporations on the Grand Board include (all names translated to their English equivalents):

ARMATEK: If it’s a weapon, Armatek makes it. From butterfly knives to equipping battleships, their product list is massive and known for high quality. They sub-contract transportation issues and electronics to two of the other massive corporations on the Board: DRIVE TRAIN DYNAMICS and ZEUS ELECTRONICS.

DRIVE TRAIN DYNAMICS handles far more than just drive trains. Basically they make any kind of transportation from bicycles to hovercraft and tanks, hydrofoils and ship engines and hulls. If it moves, they have made some version of it.

ZEUS ELECTRONICS makes everything from individual components to sophisticated guidance systems. Cell phones, computers, GPS, sensor probes, ECM, C3 units, Beagle probes, NARC beacon components, etc.

AGRIGRO produces seeds for every kind of crop, fertilizers, pesticides and other farm related products. They have also expanded into livestock, producing eggs, dairy products, poultry and various other meats and meat byproducts. If you eat it, they probably make it.

PETROCORP produces every conceivable variety of fuel, lubricant, petroleum products and other liquid or semi-liquid compounds. They also manage a wide variety of plastic products.

These five companies represent over one third of the representatives on the Grand Board. Each company has their own security force/police, and their own competitive military troops, though there are both a national police force and a national military.

An isolated nation, Japan LLC has no experience with outside wars, but have produced a well-trained and very modern militia just in case. Young men are drafted and trained for military service for four years. While women are exempted from the draft, volunteers are accepted into military service and trained possibly better than men.

Once trained, those who show talent are recruited very much like sports celebrities, and companies compete against each other in mock war challenges, striving for the honor of being first place. The contests have several phases including all types of combat.

During wartime, all troops serving for the various companies would be recalled to active national military service. Whether this type of training will prove effective or not remains to be seen...