Tech 11 Commandos

[Vynticator]

Suppose you were kitting out TL 11 special forces to infiltrate a TL10 military base on a 0.2G moon. What would you give them?

Money not an object.
No vehicles allowed.
Stealth is a priority.
Twist: The TL10 foes include major Psionic supers, the raiders have no psi but have anti-psi tech to so extent (ie. can block most telepathy but not direct psi attacks like TK).

[Agemegos]

Commando raids on military bases are sucky, sucky things to be on, because commandoes are typically very light infantry indeed, whereas military bases tend to house lots of fully-featured heavy/mechanised infantry with everything that bangs or whistles, armour, sappers, aviation assets, and all the stuff life as a commando involves trying to avoid. They even have armouries right there, full of all the stuff that is generally too heavy for even them to truck along. And they have generally set up all the stuff that ordinarily takes too long to set up. Better pray for a serious wodge of not-alertness and above-average actual military slackness.

One of the things about TL10 and TL11 is that, as one of the players in my FLAT BLACK games put it "there is nearly always a better solution than sending a guy in a suit". Automation; sensors and cameras monitored by untiring computer expert systems; pickets consisting of tactical sensor turrets and NAI-controlled heavy weapons with excellent aim and the reflexes of an adrenalised cat; fully armoured combat robots, very tough; fast, tough unmanned combat vehicles packing serious anti-tank heat: these are the things that you might be confronting. Unless the setting's design has put in some work and spent some SoD on toning down the military hardware.

Infiltrating through all that muck scares the hell out of me. And the constraints you have mentioned (TL11, money no object) suggest dusting the place with disassembler swarms and other forms of microbot weapons and then swarming it with thousands of TL10 chameleon robobugs and robot antitank weapons with multispectral chameleon surfaces. I presume that there are reasons to avoid doing that. It's an assault rather than an infiltration. But frankly I think that sneaking in to such a place without raising the alarm (say, to rescue a prisoner, capture a special asset, steal intelligence, or effect a strategic sabotage) is very hard.

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by Vynticator

Suppose you were kitting out TL 11 special forces to infiltrate a TL10 military base on a 0.2G moon. What would you give them?

Money not an object.
No vehicles allowed.
Stealth is a priority.
Twist: The TL10 foes include major Psionic supers, the raiders have no psi but have anti-psi tech to so extent (ie. can block most telepathy but not direct psi attacks like TK).

You need one hell of a diversion. Is there anything worth keeping on this moon, other than the military base itself?

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by jeff_wilson

You need one hell of a diversion.

Yeah, it would be nice to draw a lot of the enemy out on some distracting operation, get them moving about, upset their rosters, get them issued equipment and sent places and all muddled up. Cause confusion and then infiltrate in reproductions of enemy gear, delivering loads of microbots programmed to carry out the op.

[Langy]

Originally Posted by Vynticator

Suppose you were kitting out TL 11 special forces to infiltrate a TL10 military base on a 0.2G moon. What would you give them?

Money not an object.
No vehicles allowed.
Stealth is a priority.
Twist: The TL10 foes include major Psionic supers, the raiders have no psi but have anti-psi tech to so extent (ie. can block most telepathy but not direct psi attacks like TK).

What's the military base for? That'll greatly impact the types of equipment that the base can put together in its defense; some bases are extremely lightly armed, basically as armed as a police department; some have tanks and APCs and battalions of troops.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Vynticator

on a 0.2G moon.

Airless. Barren. Probably rugged, though the enemy have probably levelled and graded a killing zone outside their defences. No vegetation for concealment. Stark lighting: pickets will be probrammed or trained to spot camouflaged infiltrators by the shadows they cast.

Occupiable spaces will be under at least a metre of regolith for radiation shielding, accessed through airlocks.

On the up side, this being a military base the doors and tunnels will be sized for troops in SM+1 heavy battlesuits, so quarters will not be too cramped for dreadnought battlesuits.

[Langy]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Airless. Barren. Probably rugged, though the enemy have probably levelled and graded a killing zone outside their defences. No vegetation for concealment. Stark lighting: pickets will be probrammed or trained to spot camouflaged infiltrators by the shadows they cast.

Occupiable spaces will be under at least a metre of regolith for radiation shielding, accessed through airlocks.

On the up side, this being a military base the doors and tunnels will be sized for troops in SM+1 heavy battlesuits, so quarters will not be too cramped for dreadnought battlesuits.

If it's a navy base, a research base for any branch, or the military organization involved doesn't use battlesuits or just the smaller SM+0 ones, the corridors may be sized for normal personnel except where heavy loaders need to move through. Remember that the defenses the base has will be suited to the threat that's expected; if it's in what's supposed to be a safe area (say, because nobody else is supposed to be able to reach the moon), then there may be basically no defenses, and you'll only have stuff there that's needed.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Langy

If it's a navy base, a research base for any branch, or the military organization involved doesn't use battlesuits or just the smaller SM+0 ones, the corridors may be sized for normal personnel except where heavy loaders need to move through. Remember that the defenses the base has will be suited to the threat that's expected; if it's in what's supposed to be a safe area (say, because nobody else is supposed to be able to reach the moon), then there may be basically no defenses, and you'll only have stuff there that's needed.

Yeah. I have been thinking in terms of an operating base or at least a garrison base. A research base or military prison on a worthless uninhabited moon might not even have a perimeter fence and perimeter roads. Though there would be some pretty twitchy staff sergeants on any "base" like that.

How does the joke go?

You issue an order to secure a building. The Marines assault it, kill everyone inside, and set up a command post. The Army surrounds it with barbed wire and patrols the perimeter. The Navy sweeps the floor, switches off the lights, and locks the door. The Air Force takes out a three-year lease with an option to renew.

[Anthony]

The problem with questions like this is that it depends on the exact tech mix available, the purpose of the base, the objectives of the raiders, and what the defenders are expecting to defend against. If it's just surveillance, I'd probably use some sort of sneaky robot to penetrate a wall and deliver surveillance nanoswarms.

[Agemegos]

The big problem with the TPs is that they rule out such possibilities as showing up dressed as a major from IG and announcing a surprise inspection of security arrangements for codebooks and coding machines. Officers conducting inspections probably don't wear psi screens.