During the early 2080s the US Army was looking for a new infantry support power armor unit to support infantry soldiers on the field of open battle. With such vague requirements dozens of companies jumped to try to acquire the large scale government contract promised. DuPont Robotics submitted a type they called the Aggressor. Just before the contracted time when the types would meet in competition to win the order, the US Army extended the date for when the competition would occur. The rumor mill of the industry, which later proved to be correct, was that the US Army had seen a preliminary simulation of ArmaTech's suit. This rumor was proven beyond a shadow of a doubt when the US Army added a further requirement to the original contracted requirements - the suit must be capable of self propelled flight and it must be small enough to fit into standard doorways. Unfortunately these new requirements eliminated the DuPont Aggressor from the running. (The model eventually settled upon for this contract was the ArmaTech SAMAS, which was both conveniently small enough to fit into standard doorways, and had the advantage of flight.) After losing the contract DuPont put the Aggressor on the market and eventually sold quite a number of them to several countries in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa. Meanwhile the records, schematics, and prototype records submitted to the US Army, in the forlorn hopes of a contract, were stowed away in the little known national depository of information - Project Archive.
After the destruction of Salt Lake City in the 2090s, and the subsequent cataclysm, all known record of the DuPont Aggressor fell into the oblivion of forgotten history. That is, until S-Mart. When Ace Ripley began S-Mart he went over nearly a hundred pre-cataclysm designs of power armor and settled upon the production of only a handful. Among those chosen, was the old DuPont Aggressor. The Aggressor, now called the Gorilla for it's grossly exaggerated arm length, was produced exclusively for commercial distribution.
Since this time the Gorilla has joined the market as a direct competetor to the Northern Gun Samson and it's own stable mate the S-Mart Goliath. The largest user of the Gorilla to date was Tolkeen with 150 suits that saw heavy action at the very beginning of the war, assisting the free cities of Mc Williams and Wells, south of Tolkeen proper, in the spring/summer of 117PA. Following Tolkeen is Kingsdale who acquired 75 suits in anticipation of increased hostilities with Whykin in the autumn of 117PA. These large orders are followed by 45 for Republican, 38 for the Hope Barony, in addition to several dozen users with as few as a ten to as many as thirty suits, and the tens of individually purchased examples. Although not as popular as it's stable mate, the S-Mart Goliath, the Gorilla's sales far outweigh those of the Northern Gun Samson in recent years.
Model Type: Gorilla-A.
Class: Heavy Infantry Support Power Armor.
Crew: 1
M.D.C. by Location:
*Head - 120.
Arms (2) - 140 each.
Legs (2) - 210 each.
*BFP-3 Backfire Flechette Pack - 40.
*BMP-1 Backfire Minilet Pack - 40.
*RMC-1 Ramjet Machine Cannons (2) - 50 each.
GL-1 Grenade Launcher - 25.
**Main Body - 335.
* These designated areas of the armor are small and difficult targets to hit, so therefore may only be struck with a penalty of -3 to strike.
** Depleting the M.D.C. of the main body will shut the armor down completely, making it useless.
Performance:
Maximum Running Speed: 60 mph; Note that the act of running does tire out it's operator, but at 10% the usual fatigue rate.
Leaping: The powerful robot legs can leap 15' high or across.
Maximum Flying Speed: Not Possible; The armor unit is simply too bulky and heavy to be carried by a conventional jet pack, and serious modifications would have to be made for the mounting of a power armor jet thruster unit.
Maximum Swimming Speed: 4 mph using typical swimming type motions, or the unit may run along the bottom of the ocean at half it's normal running speed.
Maximum Safe Diving Depth: The unit is safe from the water tight seal being ruptured up to 900' in depth.
Statistical Data:
Height: 7' - 8' counting the communications aerial.
Width: 5'.
Length: 4'6".
Weight: 419 Lb. fully loaded, not including the weight of the operator.
Physical Strength: Equal to a P.S. of 35.
Power System: Nuclear; 5 year average energy life.
Cargo: A storage locker inside contains enough space for a survival kit, a side arm, a hand held radio, and a few energy clips. A small storage compartment in each forearm contains two extra clips for the RMC-1s, and in each of the lower legs a compartment stores two extra clips for the GL-1.
Market Cost: 1 million credits for a fully loaded Gorilla. Good market availability.
Weapon Systems
1. S-Mart GL-1 40 mm Grenade Launcher Pistol: This weapon is the standard sidearm of the Gorilla, and provides it with a long range anti-armor weapon, with which it can support the infantry unit it is assigned to. While standard loads are armor piercing grenades these can be swapped out for fragmentation for anti-personnel duties. It is a semi-automatic weapon that fires with each pull of the trigger.
Primary Purpose: Anti-Armor.
Secondary Purpose: Defense.
Mega-Damage: See pg. 105 of RIFTS Mercenaries.
Maximum Effective Range: 2,200'
Rate of Fire: Equal to the users combined hand to hand attacks.
Payload: 5 40 mm grenades per clip; 4 additional clips come standard with the suit, and are stowed in small compartments in the lower legs.
2. S-Mart RMC-1 Forearm Mounted Ramjet Machine Cannons: Each forearm mounts a 12.7 mm machine cannon that utilizes ramjet rounds to create an effective anti-personnel weapon. In the alternative role, this weapon is also effective in providing suppression fire to an enemy position, spraying an area, and in sending up a hail of high speed rounds into approaching missiles.
Primary Purpose: Anti-Personnel.
Secondary Purpose: Defense.
Mega-Damage: 1D4 M.D. per single 12.7 mm ramjet round or 4D6 M.D. per burst of ten rounds.
Rate of Fire: Standard; Aimed, Burst, or Wild.
Maximum Effective Range: 1,200'.
Payload: 20 shots per clip; 4 additional clips come standard with the suit, and are stowed in pairs in small compartments just behind the RMC-1s.
3. S-Mart BFP-3 Backblast Flechette Pack: This back mounted weapon is designed to cover the rear of the unit the power armor is assigned to by unleashing a hellacious rear fire attack, capable of shredding men wearing many types of contemporary body armor. What it is essentially is a controlled flechette firing pack that fires a cone of five flechette shells spreading out to cover a one hundred and twenty degree cone of fire out to the maximum range of the weapon system.
Primary Purpose: Defense.
Secondary Purpose: Anti-Personnel.
Mega-Damage: 1D4x10 M.D.
Rate of Fire: Equal to the users combined hand to hand attacks.
Maximum Effective Range: 60'.
Payload: This pack contains enough flechette rounds to fire 6 times.
4. S-Mart BMP-1 Backblast Minilet Pack: This back mounted weapon is designed to create a sort of instant mine field by firing off a salvo of half-dollar sized transparent disks filled with a high explosive gel, that if squished out, will react to the air energetically - ie. explode! The user of the power armor may determine what amount of area they would like to cover and with how many. If the disks are dropped within 5' of one another, and a single disk is detonated, all of them will explode at once in a dazzling low intensity explosion. If a large number are placed in a very small area, such as directly in the path of an armored vehicle, GREAT amounts of damage are possible. In field applications the Gorilla will often set up ambush sights for a unit of infantry soldiers by deploying a number of these in the area of the planned ambush. In other applications it is useful for covering the infantry unit's retreat, or even for disabling large armored vehicles that could be a threat to a small infantry unit the Gorilla is assigned to.
Primary Purpose: Anti-Personnel.
Secondary Purpose: Anti-Armor.
Mega-Damage: 4D6 M.D. per minilet.
Blast Radius: 2.5' per minilet. If placed within a very small area, in an effort to destroy heavily armored adversaries, increase the blast radius by 1.25' per minilet deployed. Thus if all 50 are deployed into the path of an approaching main battle tank, the blast radius becomes 63 3/4 feet!
Maximum Effective Range: 150'.
Rate of Fire: Anywhere from 1 to 50 may be deployed at a time.
Payload: 50 minilets are contained within the pack.
5. Systems of Note: This unit incorporates all the usual environmental features found in power armor including environmental protection, environmental control, air filtration, an independant 6 hour supply of air, heat and radiation shielding.
1. Virtual Reality Interface: The top of the line in power armor reality interfaces, as produced in Desert Star, is the Virtual Reality Interface. This system is far above those used elsewhere in North America, perhaps in the world. A series of high resolution digital cameras installed interpret the surrounding terrain into graphics at real-time speed without any form of lag. The curved LCD screen of the typical H.U.D. system used in most power armor now is a half sphere screen giving the operator a full 180 degrees of vision, and the suit's computer will actually talk to the operator giving audio warnings of impending attack, calculated dangers and so on. Some Gorilla pilots say that the Gorilla almost seems like an A.I.! The targeting computer is advanced over and above that of other systems as well, allowing the simultanious training of four weapon systems on a single target. External audio is excellent, and will allow the operator to hear sounds as quiet as a mouse's squeek at 100 yards. Thankfully sound filtration prevents the operator from being deafened by loud explosions and similarly loud sounds. An unintentional feature of this system is that those attempting to use mind control spells or psionics, cannot phase those inside of the Gorilla - thanks to the use of the heavily computerized system.
2. Anti-Dazzle Protection: This is essentially nothing more than a polarized film on the sensors that react to the ambient light. Thus if a bright flash occurs in the face of the Gorilla, the lense turns nearly black for an instant, and then quickly changes back to normal - protecting the operator from being dazzled.
3. Infrared Optics: This system allows the user to see the heat emanating from an object. It can be set to be white hot or black hot, depending on operating status. If in combat black hot would be best to avoid being blinded by explosions and similar. While in passive mode, outside of combat, white hot would be best, so as things like body heat would better stand out. The range of this system is 2,000'.
4. Nightvision Optics: This system uses the ambient light from starlight, moonlight and similar to allow a sort of green-tinged vision beyond normal visual ranges for a human. The range of this system is 2,000'.
5. Macrovision Optics: These optics are essentially like a microscope, capable of magnifying objects hundreds of times, from a distance of 6'. This is a useful system for analyzing clues in the field, such as tracks, spent shell casings and similar.
6. Telescopic Optics: These are exactly as they sound, telescopic optics that enhance the image of far away objects. At a range of 6,000' an object appears only 100' away, as an example. The range of this system is 6,000' effectively - but it can enhance the image of objects further away yet still, they just are not quite so well detailed.
7. Thermal Imaging Optics: This is very similar to the Infrared Optics in the sense that it detects heat, but unlike the imprecise nature of the infrared optics, this measures the heat signature precisely displaying them in colorful shades of reds, yellows, greens and blues with various degrees of heat. The thermal imaging optics are also far more sensitive than the infrared optics, actually allowing them to see heat through walls of structures at certain distances. The range of this system is 2,000', but it can only see heat through an obstacle such as a brick wall from 100'.
8. Military Radio & Scrambler: This is the same radio equipment, bolt for bolt, microchip for microchip, as the system found on the USA-G10 Glitterboy. The broadcast range is a modest 50 miles. By resetting the radio transmitter inside the armor to an elevated position, however, the same transmitter can achieve a fairly consistent 500 mile range using atmospheric bounce. Atmospheric anomalys can extend this range still further or can completely disable the radio system within a set radius, it just depends on the circumstances. The scrambler system allows the radio signals to be scrambled to all those not equipped with the correct scrambling codes.
9. Military Radar: The radar system of the Gorilla covers a one hundred and twenty degree arc in front of the suit to detect distant objects. Unlike the more primitive types used elsewhere as well as the civilian radar type also offered by S-Mart, S-Mart's military radar system is more sensitive to changes in environment. Thus if deployed to a city scape, and a man in body armor steps out from behind a wall for a moment before ducking back, and the pilot does not notice it the radar will momentarily send out a tone and the targeting computer will indicate the spot where it was seen. The range of this model is a respectable 25 miles.
10. I.F.F. Transponder System: This system transmits data such as alpha-numeric designation code, course, mission, base of operations, and unit, via radio signal, to other similarly equipped military stations, vehicles, and power armor suits that have been programmed with the correct access codes. A note towards the safety of I.F.F. - is that the codes are very difficult to break. As the Gorilla is strictly a commercial variety, all Gorilla I.F.F. Transponder Systems are programmed as civilian models, which allows N.O.M.A.D. Military types to automatically read their signals. In turn all that the civilian type would read about a N.O.M.A.D. Military type is; "MILITARY, HEADING XXX, ALT XXX, SPD XXX".
11. Flare & Chaff Cannisters: This is a ground based chaff dispenser and flare dispenser, designed to negate the usefulness of radar, thermal, nightvision, and conventional optics. What this system is intended to do is spoof out the contemporary radar/optical guidance that typically directs the missiles of the modern era. When deployed, as a parry/action, they have a 01-70% chance of successfully diverting any missiles targeted against them. What's more the flare will temporarily knock-out infrared, thermal, and nightvision optics 90% of the time. The chaff cannister will also knock out radar 70% of the time. (The effects on optics and radar seldom last longer than 1 melee.) This combined system can be used up to 3 times before requiring replacement.
12. Infrared Baffling: Special efforts went into producing the Gorilla so that it had a very small heat signature, making it difficult to spot the power armor using either infrared or thermal optics. With this design feature there is a 01-40% chance that an observer using either form of optics will not notice the Gorilla's heat signature.
13. Improvements Available: The Gorilla's basic layout is far from overextended in fact there remains a GREAT deal of room for improvement in terms of the number of systems that can be carried. Remaining system requirement slots are as follows, the first number is internal, second is external. Head 0/20, Left Arm 5/20, Right Arm 5/20, Left Leg 25/30, Right Leg 25/30, and Main Body 10/20.
6. Hand to Hand Combat Abilities: In addition to Power Armor Basic or Elite pilot training, the Gorilla enjoys the following bonuses;
+3 to Initiative
+3 to Strike with ranged weapon systems
Punch: 1D6 M.D.
Kick: 1D6 M.D.
Power Punch: 2D6 M.D.
Leap Kick: 2D6 M.D.
Body Flip/Throw: 1D6+3 M.D.
Body Block/Tackle: 1D6+3 M.D.
The picture used above and derivative description is based upon the Militech Commando as displayed on pg. 82 & 83 of R. Talsorian's Cyberpunk 2020® Sourcebook Maximum Metal. In the source book it is seen as a power armor unit produced by a huge American Conglomeration. This is by no means an attempt to steal the hard working efforts of R. Talsorian Inc's authors or artists, but merely used here as a means of utilizing interesting designs from their source materials, inside of Palladium Books' RIFTS.
