Orichalcum Universe: Machines, Vehicles, Robots, etc...

[Johnny1A.2]

Since I'm planning to post some designs and details for some of the robots, machines, vehicles, and other devices used in my Orichalcum Universe, I decided it would work best to put them all in a single thread and link to it as seemed appropriate.

For more about the Orichalcum Universe, see here: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=70111
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VELTAK BASIC EXOPOD
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Veltak Exopod Model 1

The Veltak Mark One Exopod is a cyborg support system
and combat unit designed with basically only two purposes
in mind:

1. Sustain the life of the 'pilot'.
2. Make the pilot an effective and versatile combat unit
in most situations.

The term 'pilot' is actually something of a misnomer,
the actual Veltak is a Thalerigen creature, bred and
genetically engineered to serve as a pilot, or more
precisely as a living control module, for the exopod.
The pilot is completely sustained by the life-support
system of the exopod, and normally will never emerge
from the machine through its lifetime. The life-support
system provides nutrients, water, survivable temperatures,
protection from radiation and shock, and everything else
the 'pilot' requires. Indeed, the pilot is surgically
fused with the control system and life-support system
of the exopod, and can not voluntarily emerge from it.

(The few Homosapients who have ever seen a Veltak outside
its exopod almost universally describe its appearance as
looking like a translucent, fleshy 'worm' form about one
and a half meters long and ten centimeters in diameter,
with internal organs dimly visible through the strange
white/transparent integument.)

Though physically quite frail, the Veltak 'pilot' is
psychically powerful. Indeed, this is part of the
reason for the physical frailty, these creatures have
been so heavily bred and mutated for psionic ability
that their other faculties and abilities have suffered
in consequence. The exopod is designed to make up
these lacks, and for the purposes of the Veltak, it does.
The Veltak are so closely associated with their exopods
that many Homosapients mistake the exopod for the
creature, assuming it to be a robot, and this assessment
is not absolutely wrong. The fusion is so intimate that,
as noted above, the operator is more like a living control
component of the exopod than a separate living entity.

Even then, the lines blur. The central computer of the
exopod, for example, though a separate device than the
pilot, is itself a biocomputer, a fusion of living tissues
akin to the Veltak and cybertronics...and the actual
Veltak has cybernetic/bionic components implanted into
its body when it is merged with its exopod shortly after
its 'birth'.

The exopod has a number of 'interface ports' built into
its frame, behind armor seals, which it can use to fully
integrate itself into larger machinery, in which case
the entire exopod acts as a 'control module' for the
larger machine. Such machines can include any number
of different vehicles or weapon platforms.

The Veltak exopod (in its basic form, specialized models
do exist) is built around a fission-rocket engine of
advances design, which can provide both thrust (via
heating hydrogen as a reaction mass) and energy, the
standard model can produce up to fifty thousand pounds of
thrust, and up to 17,500 kilowatts of energy, or both
(the reaction can be throttled down to nearly nothing),
and the core has enough fuel to operate, with typical
usage, for many Terran years before requiring refueling.
(Note the distinction between fuel and reaction mass,
which must be replenished far more often.)

The exopod is equipped with ten arm-tentacles, made of
semi-flexible segments mounted on universal joints, these
can be reconfigured to serve either as walking limbs,
swimming limbs, or arms, and contain various specialized
manipulators and weapons as well, they can also be
reconfigured to serve as strikers able to do either
slicing or piercing damage in accordance with strength.

An intricate network of sophisticated psionic amplifiers
and psychotronic systemry is an integral part of the
entire exopod, enabling the alien psionic power of the
'pilot' to be harnessed and used in unusual ways. The
primary means of propulsion for an exopod, other than
its limbs, is a specialized amplifier that boosts and
mutates the psychokinetic power of the Veltak 'pilot',
combines it with the energy from the power core of
the exopod, and generates levitation/propulsive force
suitable for operating in vacuum, or most atmospheres
and liquid environments. (The rocket is used primarily
for short bursts of quick acceleration, or for achieving
orbital or escape velocity from a planetary surface in
combination with PK thrust.)

The psionic power of the pilot can also be combined with the psychotronics of the exopod and the energy of the power
core to produce a protective barrier-field around the
exopod, making it very difficult either to hit or damage
(PD 4, DR 1000).

The pilots primarily communicate with each other via a form of artificially augmented telepathy, with a range of hundreds
of thousands of miles (or more if boosted and relayed).
They do, however, have radio and laser communication
facilities to communicate with telepathy is interfered
with, or to communicate with other life-forms, and there
are standard systems built into the exopod to communicate
with beings who normally use sound or light or other
means of communication (when the Veltak bother).

The Veltak exopod is heavily armored, and armed with
two powerful infra-red lasers cannon, as well as being
equipped with the necessary mounts to carry various
types of missiles and other weaponry. In addition, the
retractable 'arm/tentacles' can be used to operate
separate machinery, and the interface points enable
the entire exopod to dock with and operate heavier
equipment with more powerful weaponry. The outer
surfaces of an exopod can be heated rapidly to as much
as five hundred degrees F, or made to vibrate at an
enormous rate for a short time.

A Veltak exopod can operate efficiently underwater,
including at far greater depths than its apparent
crush depth, because it can use its psychokinetic
screen to resist the pressures. They are temperature
resistant across a greater range of temperatures than
would normally occur on Earth (broadly, from about
-200 F to up to +1000 F indefinitely).

To Be Continued...

[Johnny1A.2]

VELTAK BASIC EXOPOD continued...

Crew: 1 total

Subassemblies: Vehicle +6, Body +6, 2xWeapon Turret -2, 10xManipulator/Support Limb -3.

P&P: two 360,000-kWs rechargeable power cells, 5,000 gal
hydrogen (fire 13), 50,000 lbs. thrust basic forced-fission
rocket - 1 (vectored thrust, Isp 6,207, delta-V ~6
miles/sec [rocket alone]; no access space).

Fuel: 5,000 gal hydrogen (fire 13), two 5,000 gal self-
sealing ultralight fuel tanks (fire modifier -1).

Occupancy: battlesuit body control, 1-man total life
support system.

Armor F RL B T U
Body 4/250 4/250 4/250 4/250 4/250
Manipulator/Support Limb 4/100 4/100 4/100 4/100 4/100

Weaponry Malf Type Damage SS Acc 1/2D yds Max yds RoF TL
500mm integral missile launching tube - Cr 0d 11 0 0 0 1/25 10
IR laser Ver. Imp. 6dx5 20 22 7,900(x10) 24,000(x10) 4 10

Equipment
Body: integral automed; microframe AI computer (complexity
8; genius, hardened, very high capacity, robot brain,
biocomputer, semi-volitional, IQ 8); surgical control
interface; very long range laser communicator (500,000-
mile range; blue-green laser); long range radio
communicator (500,000-mile range; tight beam, direction
finder); inertial navigation system; chemical sensor
array; advanced radiation detector; ranging sound
detector (sound level 10); PESA (scan 21, 50-mile
range); AESA (scan 21, 50-mile range); active sonar
system (15-mile range; active/passive); multispectral
(UV/IR) searchlight (3-mile range); ten 500mm muzzle-
loader integral missile launching tubes; six 100 lbs.
unloaded hard points; liquid crystal skin (-2 spotting
modifier); infrared jammer (4.5-mile range, jammer
rating 5); deceptive jammer (jammer rating 8); chaff
distraction discharger.

Weapon Turret: 1,500-kJ IR laser (normal range; compact).

Manipulator/Support Limb: arm motor (ST:100, retractable,
striker, micromanipulator).

Statistics
Size: Dimensions variable, exopod partly reconfigurable
Payload: 3,004 lbs. Lwt: 19,559 lbs. Volume: 3,677 cf
HT: 13 HP: 1,800 [Body], 6 each [2x Weapon Turret], 6
each [10x Manipulator/Support Limb].

Ground Performance: Top Speed (walking) 35 mph

Water Performance: Top Speed (swimming on limbs) 15 mph,
PK drive 80 mph

Underwater Performance: Top Speed (swimming) 10 mph,
PK drive 25 mph, Test Depth 55 yds, Crush Depth 110 yds.

Air Performance (rocket): Motive Thrust 50,000 lbs.,
Stall Speed 0 mph, Top Speed 610 mph, Terminal Velocity
381 mph, Glide Speed 152 mph, Glide Ratio 0.607:1,
aAccel 50 mph/s, aMR 2.5, aSR 5, aDecel 10 mph/s.

Air Performance (PK drive): Stall Speed 0 mph, Top
Speed 2000 mph, Terminal Velocity 381 mph, Glide
Speed 152 mph, Glide Ratio 0.607:1, aAccel 250 mph/s,
aMR 2.5, aSR 5, aDecel 10 mph/s.

Space Performance: sAccel: 2.56 G / 3.02 G (empty),
sDecel: 2.56 G, sMR: 2.56.

Design Notes:
TL10 robotic biomechanical medium frame very expensive
materials [Vehicle].
DR 250 laminate [Body].
DR 100 advanced laminate [10x Manipulator/Support Limb].
Operating Duration (reaction mass for rocket): 12 M.
Vehicle Features: computerized controls, computerized diving
controls, self-sealed, ruggedized, waterproofed, Fair
streamlining, finely made.
Water Features: no lines, flotation.
Underwater Features: submersible.
Weapon Turret: limited rotation.
Manipulator/Support Limb: retractable.
Volume: 3,673 cf [Body]

[Johnny1A.2]

SIDEBAR: HYPERCONDUITS and HYPERJUMP TECHNOLOGY continued...

Superceded by: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread...99#post2465299

[Apache]

For the love of the Great Ghu, tell me they look like this.

:)

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by Apache

For the love of the Great Ghu, tell me they look like this.

:)

Unfortunately, they would look somewhat more (in a loose way) like this.

There would be four radiator fins instead of two, and they would have other functions as well as radiating heat, but it would look loosely like that.

[D10]

I cant see the link =(

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by D10

I cant see the link =(

Try this: http://www.projectrho.com/polaris/polaris019.jpg

It should give you the image.

[D10]

Still no go, good old 403 error.

Maybe its forbiden to Brazilian ips ?

[Apache]

No, I'm getting 403 error as well.

Which is weird.

[Johnny1A.2]

That's odd.

Try this: http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/appworkedexample.php

Ignore the commentary and analysis and the interior layout, because the only thing similar between that vessel (the Polaris) and the hyperscouts is that they sort of look the same externally and they both have a fission rocket propulsion system. The hyperscouts are taller and incorporate significant amounts of superscience.

The 'look' of the outside of the Polaris is roughly right, however.