TNE - Fire, Fusion, & Steel

When designing vehiclesfor Striker II using the design sequences in Fire, Fusion & Steel, the Traveller technical architecture sou~e- book, the following additional guidelines should be used.

GRA7 VEHlCLE DE- AND G IUVlffi When determining lift vehicle movement, thrust is usually divided

by 10 times the vehicle's volume in displacement tonnes to deter- mine G rating. However, this procedure should not be used for very dense grav vehicles, those massing 15.5 or more mass tonnes per displacement ton.

Divide the grav vehicle's loaded mass by its volume in displace- ment tonnes. If the result is less than 15.5, usethe normal procedure described above. If the result is 15.5 or more, C rating is determined by dividing thrust in tonnes by the vehicle's loaded mass in tonnes.

TURRET SlZE In some cases, designating a turret as a small turret (and therefore

requiring its components to take up 10 times their volume) results in theturret being largerthan the maximum 1 O%of vehiclevolume. However, when recalculating the turreis volume as a main turret (usually requiring its components to take up 2 times their volume), the turret then falls below the 10% threshold and becomes classified as a small turret again. In such cases, threat the turret as a main turret (using the main turret volume multiplier), but this turret must bethe only turret on that vehicle, and the vehicle is then classifd as having a mall turretfor purposes of target type in the vehicle damage sequence.

DlR€C!T ENERGY INPUT LASER HOMOPOLAR GENERATORS

Large direct energy input lasers with trainable focal arrays may be designed forturret mounting in ground vehicles. When fitting these weapons to thevehicles, the laser' homopolar generator need not be placed in the turret, nor have its mass accounted for in the weapon stabilization calculations.

NUCLEAR DAMPERS The design sequence in Fire, Fusion & Steel is based on the

assumption that the dampers will be used for space combat, and assumes a rate of fire of one shot per three minutes (1 0 shots each 30 minutes). Higher rates of fire require a larger power input and a larger nuclear damper. Choose the ground combat rate of fire desired from the table below, and find the volume multiplier that corresponds to it. This volume multiplier is applied to the volume value derived from the Nuclear Damper Design tableon page 57 of Fire, Fusion 6r Steel.

The input multiplier is applied to the MW required by the damper from the power plant. Notethatthispowermultiplierisappliedafterthe volume multiplier above is applied, and not in combination with it

If the nuclear damper is to befitted with weapon stabilization, only its basic mass (before the volume multiplier is applied) is counted against the stabilization requirement.

For example, a T U 5 3000km short-range nuclear damper with a ground ROF of SA1 has a volume of 13.2 m', draws 10.8 MW, and costs 16.8 MCr (exclusive of beam pointer and workstation). For purposesoffittingweaponstabilbation, ithasastabilized massof 3.3 tonnes (plus its beam pointer mass of 0.1 5 tonnes).

This procedure may also be used to design starshipmounted nuclear dampers. In this case the increased rate of fire is reflected in -Diff Mods to nuclear damper task rolls in space combat.

Space Cbt Ground Cbt Vol Input Space ROF ROF Mult Mult 4ifF Mods 10 1/36 x l xl - 30 1/12 x l x3 - (50) N/A N/A N/A -1 60 1 I 6 x l x6 -1 90 1 14 x l x9 -1 (1 00) N/A N/A N/A -2 120 1 /3 x2 x12 -2 180 1 I2 x2 x l 8 -2 (200) N/A N/A N/A -3 360 SA1 x4 x36 -3 (400) N/A x4 N/A -4 720 SA2 x8 x72 -4 (800) NIA x8 NIA -5

STABlUZED NIISSlLE LAUNCHERS Missile launchers need not be stabilized 50 long as their sights and

control units and designators are, except that missile launchers in turrets do require stabilization.

DRONE MlSmLES Drone missiles are remotely piloted "kamikaze" gravvehcles that

use contragrav lifters for movement throug h most of their mission, but accelerate to their maximum speed for the final flight into their targets.

Drone missiles are constructed partially as grav vehicles and partially as missiles. Although they aredesigned based onvolume like grav vehicles, they do not require hull material volume or armor to be allocated, and they do not suffer volume losses to waste volume or hull slope. However, although they do not have material allocated for their airframes, like missiles, they are assumed to have airframe structures abstracted into the other materials purchased.

Each drone missile consists of a drone brain, oneor morecommu- nicators, a warhead, contragrav l i i r s , a mode of propulsion (usually a jet engine), batteries to power the l i iers and communica- tors if the propulsion does not meet these needs, and fuel for the propulsion system.

The missile's maximum speed is calculated as if it were a grav vehicle, by dividing its thrust by its volume or mass (see gravvehicle density, above). Its cruising speed is onequartef this speed, or 200 kph, whichever is less. Thii is the speed at which the missile always flies until it attacks its target. Thii speed is considered to be flown at NOE.

Drone Missile Brains TL Mass (kg) V o l ( d ) MCr 4 i l i t y Bonus 13 20 0.02 0.1 +3 14 10 0.01 0.1 +I 15 5 0.005 0.1 +5

Drone missiles are launched from Tac missile launchers designed using the normal procedures, although the launcher need not contain any particular control units. Drone missiles do require control stations, usually fitted within the launch vehicle.

AremotedronemissilecontrolstationcMlsistrofanormalworkstation, aflightcomputerofthesmetech level asthedronebrain, andoneeach of all communicatortypesinstalled on thedronemissile. Flightcomputers andcommunikatorsmaynot beshad amongmultiplecontmlstations. A single drone missile control stations may contrd a certain number of missiles per tum depending upon tech level,

TL Missiles per Turn 9 2 10-1 1 12-1 3 14 15-1 6 1 7-1 8 1 9+

DIRECT FIRE -NET LAUNCHERS

Unguided rockets are inherently inaccurate at long ranges. The short and medium range bands for direct fire rockets are cakulated normally. Hawever, directfiremcketshaveveno longorextremerangebands,somay not be fired in direct fire mode at longer than medium range.

PUlTlNG THE HEAT BACK INTO PLASMA

Oneofthe mostconsistent requestswereceivewith respectto the equipment in TravelletQthe New Era is to increase the effectiveness of high energy weapons. Although we're reluctant to tinker with design sequences and published equipment, the pressure for tougher fusion and plasma rifles has been almost irresistible.

Never let it be said that we don't listen to customers. In fact, the well-known third law of retail sales is "Always listen toyour custorn- en." (The first law is "Never kill a customer." The second law is 'You break it, you buy it") So we took a good look at man-portable high energyweaponsand concluded that, although theyweren'tas good as grenade launchers, at least they were real expensive. Hmmm. Perhaps, we decided, there was something to all those annoying complaints after all.Thefollowing modifications refer to pages in the Fire' Fudon, & Steel high energy weapon design sequences.

Page 67 (Explosive Power Generation) Change the mass of EPG cartridges to volume x4 (instead of

volume x8).

Page 121 (High Energy Weapons) Range: Short range for plasma guns is now I00 x the square root

Short range for fusion guns is now 7 50 x the square root of pulse

Damage: Darnagevalue(D)is now 30xthesguarerootofpulreenergy

of pulse energy in Megajoules (instead of 30 x pulse energy).

energy in Megajoures (instead of 50 x pulse energy)

in Megajoules (instead of 11.5 x the square root of pulse energy)

Page 122 (High Energy Weapons)

guns is now 1-2-1 0.

fusion guns are shown below.

Penetratton: The penetration rating for both plasma and fusion

PrIce: The revised component price multipliers for plasma and

Component Plasma Firing Unit 600 Support Hardware 600 Gyro-Com pensator. 600 Inertial CompensatoF 1 000 Recoil Cradle 25 Towing Carriage 2 Autoloader 10 Gun Shield 1

Fusion 1000 1000 600

1000 25

2 10

1

-

All plasma and fusion weapons appearing in Strlker 2 have been rated according to this upgraded standard. The charts below will allow owners of Traveller: the New Era, Smash & Grab, and the Reformatton Coalltion Equipment Cutde to update the valuesfor previously published high energy weapons.

2-Mj Plasma (G-Carrik) SA1 42 2-5 1-2-10 42-42-214 - 200 '- 140