In 114PA S-Mart began a series of development projects to produce some of the first suits of non-combat oriented power armor seen in the world since the cataclysm. Some would be modifications of existing designs, while others would be all new designs. The Firedrake, firefighting power armor, would be one of the latter.
Firefighting has long been one of the most dangerous occupations in the civilian world, yet also one of the most heroic. Many pre-cataclysm books, movies, and songs were made honoring the self saccrifice often involved with the occupation. In the early 2050s some of the first suits of power armor in the civilian field were designed with firefighting in mind. Thus, as S-Mart launched it's new line of power armor the first in the line would also be a firefighting suit.
As a firefighting design it had no need for a lot of the systems one would find in a suit of combat oriented powered armor. Thus S-Mart omitted things like radar, damage control systems that would reroute power to electronics, heavy battle armor, and similar. What they did include, however, were systems that would be well suited to such an occupational need. Optics that typically are used to such great effect in combat such as thermal optics would now see an all new field of use - allowing firefighters so equipped to quickly locate hot spots in fires so that they can be attended to before they spread to other areas. Fire extinguishers in the forearms would provide the Firedrake with it's "backup weapon", allowing a suit with a spent "main weapon" a chance to escape or perform one last rescue operation before escaping. A flip out chainsaw would be included in one forearm for sawing through heavy timbers and support beams alike. A grapnel launcher and winch would be included in the other arm for fast climbs to roof tops of tall buildings and to overhead scafoldings or catwalks in warehouses and factories. Barbed spikes could be swapped out for the grapnel for setting up a quick rappeling platform for people caught in fires to escape. Jump jets would be included in the legs for quickly leaping from one spot to another on rooftops or to escape dangerous falling debris. A pair of short range missile launchers would be included on the back of the armor to permit the use of exploding CO2 foam warhead missiles to take out fires at a distance. (In the alternative high explosive warhead missiles could be used to choke out dangerous chemical fires in the same fashion high explosives are used today to put out oil fires.) The primary weapon of the Firedrake, though, would be a high pressure CO2 foam cannon with enough of a payload to put out most housefires single handedly. The sidearm of the Firedrake would be a familiar sight to anyone with any knowledge of firefighters - the traditional fire axe, albeit made of a high density mercury-titanium alloy, with a sharp wedge like head at one side and an equally sharp adze at the other.
Once the Firedrake was completed in March of 115PA a demonstration was presented, to the heads of all the firefighting organizations throughout the Alliance, in Desert Star. A team of four Firedrakes were shown able to put out fires that would require at least a pre-RIFTS rating of a two alarm fire. The speed and agility of the suit allowed it incredible latitude in a fire. It's incredible thermal protection allowed the Firedrake to go into areas that would roast traditionally equipped firemen. Once the demonstration was completed the orders came pouring in, not only from the Alliance, but from well beyond it as well. To date the Firedrake has been one of S-Mart's best selling suits of power armor, with over six hundred having been produced with regular production runs continuing. Already hundreds of lives and countless structures that would have been lost to fires, if not for the Firedrake, have been saved. In January of 118PA, Northern Gun announced a brand new suit of similar design and capability to the Firedrake. As of February, orders have already begun pouring in from all over the Coalition States and the Manistique Imperium. All of this a direct result of the Firedrake and it's continuing legacy.
Note that a small company called Divinity regularly purchases the S-Mart Firedrake and converts it over for vampire combat! The thermal optics in the Firedrake make it ideal for spotting the differing temperatures of vampires among crowds, which is in large part why the Firedrake was chosen. Among the changes made are; The CO2 Foam Cannon is replaced by a P.P.E. Clip powered water cannon, the forearm foam dispensers are swapped out with water grenade launchers, the fire axe is plated in silver, the grapnel launcher's barbed spikes are silver plated, the short range missile launcher is configured to fire TW Water Missiles, and the suit itself has a P.P.E. Clip powered TW Armor of Ithan system installed. These modified suits are called Divinity Slayers and cost an additional 350,000 credits over and above the cost of the S-Mart Firedrake.
Model Type: Firedrake-A.
Class: Firefighting Exo-Skeleton.
Crew: 1; Each suit functions best with a support crew of 3-4.
M.D.C. by Location:
*Head - 35.
Arms (2) - 35 each.
Legs (2) - 65 each.
Foam Cannon - 20.
Foam Cannister - 25.
SRML-1 Short Range Missile Launchers (2; Back) - 30 each.
Fire Axe - 80.
**Main Body - 95.
* The head is a small and difficult target to hit, thus a penalty of -3 to strike will result in any actions taken against the head.
** Depleting the M.D.C. of the Main Body means that the power armor suit is in tatters and all systems have shut down.
Note: The Firedrake was designed specifically as a fireman's tool of infinite quality and usefulness. It is not by any means a combat suit which will show if combat is encountered. Any focused damage (e.g. lasers, rail gun rounds, missile impacts, particle beams or the like.) taken in excess of 10 M.D.C. will see an 80% chance of causing 1D4 systems to shut down or malfunction. If more than 50 M.D.C. is inflicted to the suit there is a 20%+5% chance per 1 M.D.C. over 50 that all systems except the life support systems will shut down. (Life support systems will not shut down unless the M.D.C. of the Main Body is depleted.) Note however that this is only for damage inflicted upon the suit by damaging factors such as those described above. The Firedrake IS, however, designed to withstand indirect explosions such as one would encounter in a house or factory fire - damages incurred during these types of events will not effect the suit beyond damaging the protective coverings.
Performance
Running Speed: 48 mph maximum. Note that the act of running does tire out it's operator, but at 15% the usual fatigue rate.
Leaping: The powerful robot legs can leap up to 10' high or across unassisted by the leg thrusters. The leg thrusters provide a leap of 120' high or across.
Flying: Flight is not one of the abilities of the Firedrake, but it can hover for up to 40 seconds, before the strain on the thrusters forces them to shut down.
Statistical Data:
Height: 6'11".
Length: 4'6".
Width: 4'.
Weight: 766 Lb. fully loaded, not including the weight of the pilot. (Max height for the pilot is 5'8", with an optimal weight of 150 Lb.)
Physical Strength: Equal to a P.S. of 25.
Cargo: The left arm contains four insulated fireproof blankets and a small oxygen apparatus. The right leg has a small storage compartment with four 6" barbed spikes and two folded repelling harnesses. Also two fire extinguisher reloads are carried externally on the legs. Six fully charged energy clips come with the suit, four for to power the suit, and two for the chainsaw.
Power System: Electric. The Firedrake is designed to be powered by a series of four standard energy clips, fitted inside of the pilot's compartment.
Market Cost: S-Mart made it a point to try to make this unit as effective as possible while also keeping the price down by sacrificing unnecessary components which have come to be known as standard on other power armor types like radar, heavy armor, weapons, etc. This suit is available at a low cost of 455,000 credits, and can be purchased by way of payments if being made by a small town. A new Firedrake typically comes standard in Fire Engine Red, Rescue Yellow, Florescent Yellow, or Chartruse. Firedrakes have also become quite the diplomatic tool for the people of various western communities. Oftentimes in diplomatic meetings with various independant cities or Kingdoms, Queen Shaquela will make a gift of one or more Firedrakes as a display of goodwill to their people. This has been surprisingly effective and has won the gratitude and support of many independant Kingdoms in the past few years.
Weapons
1. Foam Cannon: This custom weapon is little more than a pistol like handle attached to a hose that leads back to a large back mounted pressurized cannister of CO2 foam. Generally speaking with the amount of CO2 foam included in the cannister a single Firedrake can address even a large house fire single handedly.
Primary Purpose: Firefighting.
Secondary Purpose: Rescue.
Damage: If sprayed in the eyes of an opponent it will blind them for 2D4 minutes, and for 1D4 hours afterwards the eyes will sting, burn, and continually water.
Rate of Fire: Each pull of the trigger will release a cloud of CO2 foam that will extinguish a 10' area of fire.
Maximum Effective Range: 100'.
Payload: 160 blasts of CO2 foam.
2. Forearm Mounted Fire Extinguishers (2): Under the forearms are a pair of fire extinguishers meant to give the Firedrake a last ditch effort, once the foam cannon's cannister is spent, to extinguish a fire, save one last fire victim, or to make an escape. The suit also carries, externally, a quartet of reload cannisters on the legs. This allows each fire extinguisher to be reloaded manually twice.
Primary Purpose: Firefighting.
Secondary Purpose: Rescue.
Damage: If sprayed in the eyes of an opponent it will blind them for 2D4 minutes, and for 1D4 hours afterwards the eyes will sting, burn, and continually water.
Rate of Fire: Each pull of the trigger will release a cloud of CO2 foam that will extinguish a 6' area of fire.
Maximum Effective Range: 10'.
Payload: 4 blasts of CO2 foam each, 12 with the reload cannisters.
3. Forearm Mounted Capos Industries PS-16 Powered Chain Saw: Mounted in the left forearm of the suit is a retractable chainsaw that flips down and into position when it is to be used. It is designed to provide the suit with the ability to cut new entrances/exits, open up holes in roofs to control burning, and to cut through debris barring entrance/exits from a room. Occasionally this system finds use in protecting the armor from deranged arsonists and supernatural creatures.
Primary Purpose: Firefighting.
Secondary Purpose: Defense.
Damage: 1D4x10 M.D. when cutting through hard non-organic material and wood, but only 4D6 M.D. when cutting through soft organic material like flesh and bone.
Rate of Fire: Equal to the pilot's combined hand to hand attacks.
Maximum Effective Range: Hand to hand only.
Payload: An energy clip, fitted into the top of the forearm housing provides enough power for 2 minutes of operations. Two clips come standard with the armor to supply power.
4. Back Mounted S-Mart SRML-1 Short Range Missile Launchers (2): These back mounted missile launchers are mounted on a powered articulated mount that holds these tube like launchers in place out of the way on the back when not to be used, and then flip up and over the shoulders to a firing position when activated. They are typically outfitted with CO2 warhead short range missiles, for the purpose of taking out the heart of extremely hot fires. In the alternative they may be outfitted with high explosive missiles for the purpose of choking out dangerous chemical fires in the same fashion modern oil fires are extinguished.
Primary Purpose: Firefighting.
Secondary Purpose: Rescue.
Damage: None for the CO2 warhead missiles, save for the same effects on eyes as the fire extinguishers, but standard for high explosive short range missiles.
Rate of Fire: The pilot may opt to fire one or both of the missiles at the same time.
Maximum Effective Range: Varies.
Payload: 2; 1 per launcher.
5. Fire Axe: This weapon is the high tech equivalent of the fireaxes used in pre-cataclysm times. At one side it has a sharp wedge like axe head used for chopping through debris, to open up the roof, bash through windows, etc. At the other side is an adze - a horizontal blade used mostly for prying boards up, prying locked doors open, and similar. In forest fire situations the adze would also be a useful addition for digging firelines. As with the powered chainsaw, this piece of equipment occasionally finds it's use in defending the suit from deranged arsonists and supernatural creatures. This weapon is extremely heavy and tough, thanks to the mercury-titanium alloy it is molded from.
Primary Purpose: Firefighting.
Secondary Purpose: Defense.
Damage: +2D6 M.D. in addition to the punch damage of the Firedrake.
6. Systems of Note: This unit incorporates all the usual environmental features found in power armor including environmental protection, air filtration, an independant air supply with up to 14 hours of breatheable air, plus heat and radiation shielding. The heat shielding is more elaborate on this suit, however, providing electrical cooling coils in an effort to keep the suit's vital systems, and it's wearer cool even in blazing hot temperatures - up to 2,000 degrees fahrenheit!
1. H.U.D. Wideband Interface: This system is one of the most common systems used throughout post-cataclysm Earth in power armor. Instead of relying upon human vision it operates using a wide angle lense camera to take in the scene. Built into the helmet it often sits directly in front of the pilot's face, concealed behind a curved LCD screen. With this model a full one hundred and twenty degree field of vision is attained AND it has no ill effects on the power armor operative. This system provides full integration of all systems in a comprehensive H.U.D. (Heads Up Display). Unlike the common systems found elsewhere, this type is joined with a more advanced targeting computer that allows up to two weapons to be trained on a target at once. The audio level in the H.U.D. Wideband Interface is advanced beyond normal human hearing, becoming only slightly less sensitive than the cybernetic "Amplified Hearing".
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 Firedrake, the lense turns nearly black for an instant, and then quickly changes back to normal - protecting the operator from being dazzled. Through the use of this specialized material, it prevents the user of the Firedrake from being blinded or stunned by explosions, sudden gouts of flame,
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 actively searching for fires in an area where they are unsure, then white hot should be appropriate. If operating amidst a fire, black hot would likely be the better choice to avoid being blinded by the bright white light. 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 that might point towards the origin point of fires, signs of accellerants, etc.
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'. This system is helpful for discovering individuals behind rocky outcroppings or for pointing out the location of live individuals trapped in avalanches. This is especially helpful for analyzing the temperature of fires, locating hot spots, and for locating hiding children and the like on a fire scene.
8. Military Radio: 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.
9. 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. This allows commanders on sight of a fire to quickly determine who is where, and what they are in the process of doing - aiding greatly to the command and control of a fire unit using these suits of power armor. A further feature of this system is that it functions well as a distress beacon. A note towards the safety of I.F.F. - is that the codes are very difficult to break. Since the N.O.M.A.D. Military periodically changes their I.F.F. safety codes - attempts to crack the codes that have taken weeks of supercomputer analysis - are for naught. The Firedrakes that are sold commercially DO include this system but it is programmed as a civilian system, readily read by N.O.M.A.D. Military programmed I.F.F. transponders.
10. Cellular Phone: This is essentially just a cell phone built into the suit allowing the operator to make direct calls to authorities, or for authorities to contact just that suit.
11. Operational Recorder: A silent unseen partner to the fire fighter to bare unbiased witness to all situations encountered. It comes standard with four disks, that can witness up to 96 hours of firefighting footage.
12. Grapnel Launcher & Winch: This permits the fire fighter to span large horizontal distances not appropriate for leaping. The pneumatic launcher can send the grapnel up to a maximum of 300'. The cable is very strong, and capable of supporting a whopping one and a quarter tons. The firefighter can also detach the grapnel from the cable and replace it with one of four barbed 6" metal spikes carried by the unit, and can fire it down from a building at an angle, imbedding into grass and concrete alike. This can be used by victims to slide down via a hand pulley or repelling harness, to the awaiting ground crew. The firefighter then detaches the cable from the spike via winch controls and winches the cable back in.
13. Improvements Available: The Firedrake's basic layout is fairly stretched due to it's specialized nature. Remaining system requirement slots are as follows, the first number is internal, second is external. Head 5/17.5, Left Arm 0/15, Right Arm 5/5, Left Leg 12.5/25, Right Leg 12.5/25, and Main Body 5/0.
7. Hand to Hand Combat Abilities: In addition to Power Armor Basic or Elite pilot training, the Firedrake enjoys the following bonuses;
+2 to strike with ranged weapon systems.
Punch: 1D4 M.D.
Power Punch: 2D4 M.D.
Kick: 1D4 M.D.
Leap Kick: 2D4 M.D.
Body Flip/Throw: 1D4+2 M.D.
Body Block/Tackle: 1D4+2 M.D.
Heroes of 9/11, you are not forgotten....
