During the so called "Golden Age of Man", the technology that birthed power armor to what it has become after the cataclysm, was relatively widespread. By the 2060s, power armor had grown to encompass, it's military applications aside, numerous fields of work. Power armor was an excellent choice for inhospitable environments and for working in heavy duty lines of work. Not the least of which was general construction and demolitions occupational positions.
After the cataclysm much was lost to humankind. High technology, such as that used in power armor, was generally reserved for military applications. Few remembered when power armor actually served equally valuable service in non-military applications. That is - until Ace Ripley discovered 'Project Archive'. Hidden within the ancient pre-cataclysm depository of information was volumeless tomes on the application of technology - including the value that power armor once held in common day to day life. According to these tomes hundreds of companies had arisen within the span of twenty years, each of which producing power armor - few of which were even produced for military service! Ace Ripley took this information to heart. If power armor served such a valuable place then, it would be equally valuable now - if not moreso, if only the proper types were produced for such applications. This was the start of S-Mart's revolutionary civil field power armor series of suits.
In pre-cataclysm times, one of the most valuable places power armor served, was in the construction field. Power armor could carry great amounts of weight, and could carry precision tools and sensors right to the scene, and access them with the push of a button. With training a construction power armor pilot could do ten times the work of a normal man, with greater precision, in perfect safety and comfort. Using this information S-Mart began work on a new construction power armor suit. It wouldn't be a tiny suit, nor would it be cheap, but it would be the ultimate impliment in construction. At eight feet in height it is roughly the size of an old style SAMAS unit. With a physical strength of 35, however, it was stronger, suited well to carrying heavy equipment and construction materials. Equipped with modular arms (With an assortment of special function arms being available, from S-Mart of course.), a large storage bin capable of carrying up to a half dozen separate arms, smaller storage bins in the legs capable of carrying an assortment of tools, plus an assortment of handy sensors to aid the suit in all manner of construction projects. When unveiled the suit was aptly named the Vulcan, after the smith of the Gods of Olympus.
Since it's introduction, the Vulcan's sales have been slow in coming, but they are gradually picking up. Power armor pilots, active in the wars of the past decades have, in past decades, seen their skills go to waste after retirement from military life. With the advent of the Vulcan now these older, retired, power armor users have found a new lease on life - capable of serving in high paying jobs as power armor pilots once again. Instead of weilding horribly destructive weaponry, now they weild the tools of construction, and the sensors to aid it. A half dozen companies in the Allied Nations have purchased a handful of Vulcans each, to aid in construction, and a further half dozen more are considering purchases. A dozen more companies and nations outside of the Alliance have also effected purchase of a handful of Vulcans for their own use. The largest users of the type are the Royal Construction Corps of Desert Star with 25 suits and Akersley Shipyards with 22 suits. All told about a hundred suits have been produced thus far, with small production runs, running every six months or so to manufacture another dozen or so. IF a large scale war ever comes to the Allied Nations, it is likely that all privately held Vulcans within the Alliance will be siezed for military use, in addition to a large production run being made for the construction of fortifications, reconstruction of devastated structures, and similar.
Model Type: Vulcan-A.
Class: Civilian Construction Power Armor.
Crew: 1.
M.D.C. by Location:
*Head - 45.
*Upper Arms (2) - 45 each.
*Lower Arms (2; All Types) - 40 each.
Legs (2) - 90 each.
Heavy Tool Bin - 40.
**Main Body - 130.
* These are small and difficult targets to hit, thus a penalty of -3 to strike will result in any actions
taken against the designated areas.
** Depleting the M.D.C. of the main body will shut the armor down completely, making it useless.
Note: 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 Vulcan IS, however, designed to withstand indirect explosions such as one would encounter in a worksite fire - damages incurred during these types of events will not effect the suit beyond damaging the protective coverings. Moreover, however, this suit will protect well against falling debris, falls, and similar.
Performance
Running Speed: 43 mph; Note that the act of running does tire out it's operator at 10% the usual fatigue rate.
Leaping: The powerful robotic legs can leap up to 10' high or across.
Maximum Swimming Speed: 4 mph using typical swimming motions, or the pilot may opt to run across the bottom of a body of water at half the suit's 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: 8'.
Length: 4'5".
Width: 4'2".
Weight: 504 Lb. for a fully functioning, and basic S-Mart Vulcan, not including the weight of the pilot, tools, extra arms, or anything else.
Physical Strength: Equal to a P.S. of 35.
Cargo: The Vulcan has a heavy tool bin located in it's lower abdomen, for the storage of large tools, and extra arms for it's modular arm attachments. Up to a half dozen extra arms may be carried in this bin or 30 S.R. of storage. In the top of both legs additional tools and equipment may be carried as well, totaling up to 10 S.R. of storage per leg.
Power System: Nuclear, average energy life of 5 years.
Market Cost: The basic Vulcan costs 650,000 credits, including only the conventional arms, and with no tools filling the tool bins. (See the Systems of Note, further down the page, #12 for details on cost pertaining to modular arm cost.) The Vulcan comes in gray, silver, construction orange, and gray with yellow and black stripes on arm and leg bands.
1. 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. Note however that this suit does NOT incorporate a radar system.
1. Expert Interface: This system was at one time a popular system, well before the cataclysm, prior to miniaturized H.U.D. units becoming available. This system utilizes a series of lenses and mirrors to grant greater peripheral vision to the power armor user, increasing the suit's peripheral vision from perhaps 80 degrees to the normal human vision of 120 degrees. The only drawback to this system is that the peripheral vision lenses are tiresome and can cause headaches, eyestrain, and possibly even eye damage over time. A basic targeting computer comes with this Interface version, that provides a crosshair on the visor of the suit wherever the arm engaged is pointing at. This provides a slight advantage in the suit's duties. The audio sensors for this interface version are sensitive enough to emulate near perfect human 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 Vulcan, the lense turns nearly black for an instant, and then quickly changes back to normal - protecting the operator from being dazzled. This system makes welding a breeze as the face plate automatically tints, and lightens between welding actions.
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. 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. This allows the Vulcan suit to continue to labor away at jobs, long after the sun has retreated over the horizon. 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 construction materials for flaws, checking for proper fit of components, 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. This system is handy for checking out distant areas of a work sight - commonly used to see which way the boss is looking, before popping the faceplate up for a smoke.
7. Civilian Radio: This is a short range transmitter/receiver that operates entirely on civilian frequencies of radio, with a modest transmission range of only 20 miles.
8. Cellular Phone: This system is exactly as it sounds, a cellular phone built into the power armor suit. This system is commonly used when summoning a power armor operator down from a construction sight to confer with architects, employers, or with the site foreman.
9. Shock Suppressant Padding: This is a system of 'smart padding' that cushions the pilot the Vulcan during heavy impacts and falls, in an effort to minimize damage incurred from such events. The 'smart padding' cushions in such a way as to carefully give under weight of the pilot, while providing a certain measure of resistance, so as to cushion the pilot's body, and secure it so that it does not bounce around during a tumble or fall. With this system a pilot takes no damage from falls of up to 100'. For every 50' beyond this, the pilot will take 1D4 S.D.C. from a fall. Damage inflicted from impact type weapons is reduced to 1/10 it's normal amount.
10.Electro-Magnetic Pads: Both of the knees and elbows are outfitted with electro-magnetic pads. These pads allows the operator to electrify special electro-magnets built into portions of the body of the power armor, in an effort to cling to metallic surfaces. The weight capacity for all four pads working together is 1,000 Lb.
11. Tethering Harness: A pair of waist mounted servos connected to a waist belt is the basis of this tethering harness. The remainder of the harness fits over the shoulders, and down through the groin area of the power armor, permitting the power armor to be strapped to any type of surface, horizontal beams, or vertical alike. The servos are strong, capable of exerting 2,500 Lb. of force.
12. Modular Arms: Both arms of the Vulcan are of a modular type that allow for the forearm forward, just below the elbow, to be swapped out when necessary, to accomodate a new arm with a special function. The basic arm weighs 10 Lb., while arms that lack the hand weigh 8 Lb. plus the weight of any systems installed. These handless arms have 37.5 S.R. available for various systems to be installed into them. The suit automatically comes with two standard arms, complete with hands, but no special tools or systems installed into them. For the special handless arms they cost a base price of 22,000 plus the cost of whatever systems are installed. Please visit the Power Armor Systems page, of S-Mart's Custom Power Armor Design Sequence. Look especially under the General Systems heading and Hand to Hand Weapons heading for a variety of useful components that may be added to special arms. Take special note of the S.R. and Cost headings in these sections, and take care to not exceed the space allotment for these arms.
13. Alignment, Leveling, & Grade Calibration Laser: This is a small, shoulder mounted turreted laser, that has a series of functions. The first function allows it to function as an alignment recording device, capable of reading measurements of difference down to 1/10,000th of an inch. In it's leveling function, it works in much the same way as the alignment, recording the exact layout of the land, and indicating what changes would have to be made to make it level. In it's grade calibration function, it records the exact angle of slope in a downgrade. It also functions well as a range finder and measurement impliment, making things as quaint as tape measures obsolete. The maximum range on this system is 6,000'.
14. Ultrasound Transducer: This system is designed to use ultrasound technology to evaluate an object in extreme detail. Through the use of ultrasound it can evaluate the proximity of objects under the surface, evaluate the structural integrity of an object - searching for cracks, scratches, manufacturing defects, etc., the rate of flow of fluids beneath the surface and the pressure levels exerted by subsurface fluids. Located in the forehead of the power armor it has a wide range of movement for focusing on objects. The range of this system is 6'.
15. Vibration Sensor: This helmet mounted system uses a laser beam to detect vibrations in objects, and give a read out of how violent the vibrations are and what axis the vibrations are on. In the construction field this may be used to detect swaying or minute vibrations from loose joints and similar. While the range of the laser used is only 250', the range of the vibrations varies dramatically.
16. Improvements Available: The Vulcan's basic layout was intentially left with a GREAT deal of room for improvement, to allow for it to be customized to fit certain construction roles. The installation of modular arms was one of the biggest compromises made to cater to this trait. Remaining system requirement slots are as follows, the first number is internal, second is external. Head 7.5/25, Left Arm 25/25, Right Arm 25/25, Left Leg 15/35, Right Leg 15/35, and Main Body 32.5/20.
2. Hand to Hand Combat Abilities: The Vulcan is NOT designed for combat. Still, it's strength is a boon to it, if it were ever to encounter a situation where it would be required to engage in combat. In addition to Power Armor Basic or Elite pilot training, the Vulcan has the following bonuses and penalties;
-2 to initiative.
+1 to strike with ranged weapon systems.
Punch: 1D6 M.D.
Power Punch: 2D6 M.D.
Kick: 1D6 M.D.
Leap Kick: 2D6 M.D.
Body Flip/Throw: 1D6+3 M.D.
Body Block/Tackle: 1D6+3 M.D.
