Carchardon-opteryx a.k.a. shark-a-dactyl a.k.a. Bruce missile (i.e. Bruce equals the shark from Jaws and replaces cruise)
The Carchardon-opteryx was developed by House Hammond for House Artemis in response to the machines newly created sea snakes and future aquatic robot designs. The shark-a-dactyl starts out life as a prehistoric great white shark. Its first act upon activation/release is to dive down in shallow depths into the seabed and begin consuming its first meal made up of silicon sand and subsurface clay which it uses to finish creating its robot Power core containment organ. Once the containment organ has finished initial growth, located immediately off of the stomachs exit, the shark-a-dactyl begins its second stage, hunting and consuming the machines aquatic creations.
The shark-a-dactyl's teeth, already serrated and razor-sharp, are enhanced to act like individual vibro-blades helping it to take large bites of metal. The bio force field is focused on the inside of the mouth, the tongue, the esophagus, and the stomach and is used to contain/control nanobot response from the metal it has bitten off. After a bite is taken the tongue (which is actually more like a mass of tentacles) feels around the contents it just bit off, feeling around, looking for a power core. The bio force field can potentially contain the nano plague for only 3-4 melee rounds. Every melee there is a 5% cumulative chance of the metal overcoming the bio force field in the first 3-4 melee rounds. After the forth the chance goes up 15% per melee round. If no power core is found the shark-a-dactyl forcibly expels the contents in it's mouth rather like a gore cannon with a very limited range. The range and damage(45'-50' & 1D8 M.D.) is limited due to seawater density and water diluting the bile.
If a power core is detected the tongue tentacles will rip as much metal off the core as possible, and spit it out. Then the core is swallowed until the acids in the stomach can dissolve what is left of it for consumption by the creatures containment organ. The only metal to make it past the stomach contains the nuclear power core if it manages to consume it. A consumed core passes from the stomach into the specially grown containment organ where it is stored until the creature has consumed enough cores to trigger the transformation phase from shark Hunter to Opteryx missile. If possible the shark-a-dactyl should hit the bottom and consume more sand and clay within 24 hours after eating each core. This is done for the reinforcement of the containment organ. If there's a chance to eat multiple cores' it will do so, then it will hit the sea floor.
When a sufficient number of Power core's have been gathered in the containment organ (1D10 sea snake cores or 1D8 medium to large size robot Power core's) it swims out to deep water and stops swimming. This results in the shark sinking like the proverbial stone. As it sinks its skin undergoes a transformation similar to cocooning and this new skin/cocoon hardens (including a sizable bubble of shell inside the mouth) to provide depth protection and space to begin transforming into its pterosaurs/cruise missile form.
While cocooned the sharks top fin migrates forward and attaches to the back of the skull to act as a head rudder in-flight. The two major side fins develop into folded up pterosaurs wing's. The digestive track past the core containment organ and of the back third of the shark including its tail are used to create a very powerful hydro-jet. The foreword two thirds of the shark from the gills back is used to create both the skin that provides the wings as well as the muscles to operate them. As this happens the bio force field concentrates entirely on the stomach that begins to produce hyper acidic digestive juice's. At this time both the stomach and the core containment organ separate from the digestive track entirely so that from the mouth to its new tail/exhaust port is a single tube that can contract an relax acting like a hydro-jet.
Once the transformation is complete the shark bites down violently on the bubble of skin/shell which causes water from the greater depth forcibly passes through and starts up the new hydro-jet with the exhaust stream breaking out a hole at the back of the shell.
The hydro-jet propels the shell encased missile to the surface at incredible velocity. Once the surface is breached and contact with air is made, the shell flies apart and a new pterosaurs cruise missile spreads its wings for the first and last time. The incredible velocity achieved in reaching the surface lofts the missile high enough to allow it 15 seconds of glide time during which the cartilage skeleton hardens.
Prior to sinking/cocooning the shark approaches the shoreline as close as possible using the specialized cells for detecting EM fields looking for any installations and or large robot's. These locations are marked in its memory and are reacquired once the missile is airborne and becomes its target.
It avoids anti-aircraft by virtue of looking so similar to a normal pterosaurs or a flight of birds which is generally off limits that it can make it into its' terminal dive before the machine fires on it.
Class: anti-aquatic robot/organic cruise missile
Crew: none
MDC by location:
Shark form:
Fins (three)-75 each
tail-2D8X 10, +30
head-2D4X 10, +40
tongue/mass of tentacles (10-15)-1D4 +20 each
main body-1D4X100, +175
bio-force field (concentrated through the mouth, esophagus, and stomach to protect it from the nanobot plague activating until the acids in the stomach breaks up the metal for consumption)-300
core containment organ (organ is silicon/ceramic-based internal storage pouch)-100
Opteryx form:
organic thruster (rear one third of the hydro-jet)-170
wings (two)-78 each
head-original shark form MDC remains unchanged
top fin/head rudder-75
main body-original shark form MDC remains unchanged minus the MDC of the hydro-jet
bio-force field (concentrated solely on the stomach now as it super-acidify)-300
core containment organ (organ is silicon/ceramic-based internal storage pouch)-100
*A single asterisk indicates a small, low profile, or shielded target that is difficult to hit. An attacker must aim and make a "called shot" to hit such targets, and even then is -3 to strike.
**Destroying the head will stop the war mount in its tracks, eliminates all optics and sensory systems, reduces the speed to 10% of Max, reduces the number of melee attacks to three total (including the riders) and negates all bonuses from the animal, but the rider can still fire the weapon systems and makes the war mount walk (at a ponderous pace) for up to 12 hours after the head is gone.
***Depleting the MDC of the main body will shut down the war mount completely, rendering it totally useless and effectively destroying and killing it.
Speed:
Running: not applicable.
Leaping: not applicable.
Digging: not applicable.
Swimming: in shark form 80 mph, in launching form hydro-jet speed 160 mph
Flying: in cruise missile form 150 mph, reaching 350 mph during its terminal phase. Maximum altitude 30,000'
Statistical data:
Height:
Width: shark-a-dactyl 60 to 70 foot long wing span
Length: shark form 25 to 35 feet long, shark a dactyl 20 to 30 feet.
Weight: 15 to 20 tons
Cargo: only cargo is Power core's consumed during the hunting phase.
Physical strength: 21 to 24
Production cycle: four month gestation period plus one year growth cycle
Operational lifetime: 5 to 6 years
Trade value:2 million in trade or credits. House Hammond gave the DNA code freely to House Artemis. In times of need they'll "mass produce" them at cost i.e. biomass.
Bio regeneration:2D6 per hour
Horror factor: 10
Feeding: the shark-a-dactyl is a lithovore and requires 10-20 pounds worth of coral, sand, and stone per day
Sleep requirements: As an artificially created organism it only requires four hours of sleep per day. Due to its shark like nature this weapon is in constant motion even in its sleep in order to keep water flowing over its gills.
Rider: none
Other Data:
The Carchardon-opteryx are little more than a mouth with a body that moves it. Even when it's asleep it still moves for two reasons, one it has to keep moving to breath, and two if it stops moving it sinks. If it sinks deep enough it prematurely initiates the conversion to flight mode. As long as it moves it continues to search and eat.
Alignment: Anarchist. It's only porpoise is to eat as many power cores' as it can then fly directly to the largest metallic object, be it building or robot and detonate it's cargo of power cores.
War Mount Attributes: I.Q. 1D4, M.E. 1D6+10, M.A. 2D6, P.S. 20+1D8,
P.P. 1D6+15, P.E. 3D6+3,
P.B. 1D4, Spd.80 mph max swimming, 160 mph max hydro to air, air cruising speed 150 mph, terminal speed 350 mph.
Number of Attacks per Melee: underwater 3 per melee, airborne 1 per melee.
Combat Bonuses: +6 on initiative, +7 to strike, +1 to parry, +4 to dodge, +3 to roll with punch, impervious to Horror Factor, disease, and poison.
Equivalent (instinctive) Skills of Note: Swim 98% (I'm tempted to say 99%+ I mean come on, it's the great grand daddy of a great white shark!), Land Navigation 85%, Detect/determine/target Largest Metallic Object 95%
Combat Capabilities:
Bite: 8D8
Body Block/Ram: 5D6
Senses and Features: Underwater Eyes, Electromagnetic Vision, plus EM detection cells are spread across it's snout, Floating Air Bladder, Bio-Force Field, teeth enhanced to be Vibro-Blades
Bio-Weapon Systems: Bite: teeth enhanced to be Vibro-Blades 8D8
Gore Cannon: Mega-Damage: 2D8+2 M.D.
Maximum Effective Range: 50 feet.
Rate of Fire: Each blast counts as one melee attack.
Payload: 1 mouth full per shot
Detonating consumed robot power cores: Requires 2 melee rounds to prepare cores for detonating by increasing acid levels in stomach and pumping this caustic goo into the core containment organ. This dissolves the core shielding resulting in their detonating.
Maximum Effective Range: 1000 miles
Rate of Fire: Once
Payload: 1D4x500 per small core
1D6x500 per medium core
1D8x500 per large core
Targeting Preferences: Carchardon-opteryx targets the largest metal object first. These are usually factories or fortifications. If none are present it then targets the largest robot it can detect.
Thanks for looking. Let me know if you like.
