Last of my re-posts.
Sea Snake
The Machine (more specifically, the Ishtar personality) has grown tired of the human’s domination beneath the waves. Ishtar does not plan to take the lead in the campaign against humanity again until her sister personalities within the N.E.X.U.S. beg her to, but she is still quite irritated that the humans have grown so bold. More and more raids are being staged from the Great Ocean, and the monstrous organic assault carrier known as the Kraken is a serious threat to the Machine. Ishtar has convinced Hecate that an underwater hunter/killer robot is necessary to combat this growing threat, but most designs have proven to be just as vulnerable to salt water as any other robot once the armor is breached. Hecate’s latest design, the Sea Snake, seems to have overcome this frailty, plus it is a sleek, agile, and brutally effective killing machine.
The robot has a jet-black segmented snake body with no arms or legs to keep it streamlined, and a stylized sea serpent head for dramatic effect. Each segment is circled with directional thrusters and running down the entire length of the spine is a mini-torpedo launcher. The main rear thrusters can propel the Sea Snake at incredible speeds, but the brilliance of the design becomes apparent when the robot starts twisting its body about while firing the directional thrusters. The Sea Snake can dodge and move through the water with a level of maneuverability that just seems unnatural. It can cut through the water at high speeds in ways that no organic creature can match.
All robots unleashed by the N.E.X.U.S. have many redundant systems to keep them operational under the harshest combat situations, but they are nothing compared to the Sea Snake. Every system has nearly a half dozen back-ups and each system is compartmentalized in its own armored shell in order to protect the internal circuitry from the devastating ocean waters. The Sea Snake even has a back up power core. No matter how many redundant systems the Sea Snake has, once the robot starts taking damage, it is only a matter of time before the salt water starts shorting out circuitry. Hecate decided to make the best of a bad situation by programming her creations to make suicidal charges at the enemy once four back-up units of any important system fail (i.e. once the M.D.C. of the internal armor is reduced to 30 percent). At this point the Sea Snake transforms from hunter/killer to intelligent torpedo. Hecate gave her creation two anti-matter power cores (instead of the standard fusion power cells) in order to give the robot an impressive explosive payload.
The design is everything that Ishtar could have hoped for, but it still has two major limitations. First, the same problem that plagues all the Machine’s creations still applies to the Sea Snake. Once it descends below a depth of 200 feet, it loses contact with N.E.X.U.S. Ishtar just plans to release these robots in independent hunter/killer groups to patrol the oceans. She would like to get reports back from these robots, but she is willing to operate blind as long as she can create some type of Machine presence within the Great Ocean. Sea Snakes do need to return to port to restock spent mini-torpedoes, so this is the only way Ishtar can get updates about successful assaults. The second flaw with the Sea Snake is that it is incredibly expensive to create such a durable robot design. Hecate must expend a tremendous amount of time and resources to build each robot, in fact, the same amount of time and materials could be used to create five Steel Troopers or a dozen Skitter Pods, which is why only a few hundred Sea Snakes have been constructed so far. It will be years before the Machine can manufacture enough Sea Snakes to effectively patrol the Great Ocean. Unfortunately, N.E.X.U.S. has no way to know how many are falling to the Resistance, so for all the Machine knows, the pace of destruction could easily be outpacing the rate of construction. Another drawback with investing so many resources into these underwater combatants is that once they are destroyed, the scrap sinks into the depths of the ocean where it is impossible to salvage. Ishtar has no real way to determine if this dedication of resources is worthwhile, but she plans to keep pouring Sea Snakes into the ocean until the Resistance is crushed or the design is proven to be worthless.
Class: Underwater Assault Robot
M.D.C. by Location:
• Main Thrusters (2): 110 each
• Head: 190
• Main Body: 520*
• Internal Armor: 200**
*Depleting the M.D.C. of the Main Body does not destroy the robot, but it does mean the Sea Snake’s overall combat effectiveness has been diminished. The armor will have multiple breach points allowing the interior to fill with water, plus dozens of directional thrusters are damaged or destroyed which inflicts the following penalties: -2 on initiative, -2 to strike, parry, and dodge, and an automatic dodge is no longer possible.
**Depleting the M.D.C. of the Internal Armor will completely destroy the robot. However, once the armored shielding is reduced to 30 percent, the Sea Snake will be on the verge of destruction and its internal programming will send it on a suicidal charge against the nearest Resistance target.
Speed:
Running: The Sea Snake can slither across the land at 20 mph.
Digging: Can dig at 5 mph through sand or dirt.
Swimming: Maximum speed of 400 mph, but in order to maximize maneuverability and agility, it must travel at a cruising speed of 200 mph.
Underwater Depth: 2 miles
Flying: Not possible.
Statistical Data:
Height: 4.5 feet
Width: 4 feet
Length: 15 feet
Weight: 1.5 tons
Physical Strength: Robotic P.S. of 30
Cargo: None
Power System: 2 anti-matter power cells, average life of 40 years
Trade Value: None, except perhaps to a Technojacker.
Horror Factor: 12
Senses and Features: Standard plus sonar that can identify and track up to 48 targets simultaneously, at a range of roughly two miles.
Number of Attacks per Melee: 6
Combat Bonuses: +5 on initiative, +5 to strike with ranged weapons, +4 to strike in hand to hand combat, +4 to parry, +6 automatic dodge, +2 to disarm, and +5 to roll with punch. When traveling at maximum speed, the bonus on initiative is reduced by 3 and bonuses to strike, parry, and dodge are reduced by 2.
Skills of Note: Standard, plus Swimming 98%, Prowl 80%, and Navigation 85%
Weapon Systems:
1. Dual Blue-Green Laser Blasters: Mounted in the head are two blue-green lasers that are the robot’s primary weapon.
Primary Purpose: Assault
Secondary Purpose: Defense
Mega-Damage: 4D6 per single blast, 8D6 per dual blast
Rate of Fire: Equal to the number of attacks per melee
Effective Range: 2000 feet
Payload: Effectively unlimited
2. Mini-Torpedo Launchers: The bumpy ridge running down the back of the robot is actually a mini-torpedo launcher. This design allows for minimal water drag.
Primary Purpose: Assault
Secondary Purpose: Defense
Mega-Damage: 5D6 per torpedo
Rate of Fire: Can fire volleys of 1, 2, 4, or 8
Effective Range: About a mile
Payload: 24 torpedoes
Bonuses: +5 to strike
3. Torpedo Ram: When the Sea Snake is on the verge of destruction (M.D.C. of the internal armor is reduced to 30 percent), it will ram into the nearest enemy like a torpedo. Most of the explosive impact is absorbed by the Sea Snake’s multiple layers of thick armor plating, but it still releases a tremendous explosion.
Mega-Damage: 5D6x10 with a 50-foot blast radius.
4. Hand-to-Hand Combat: The Sea Snake can engage in hand-to-hand combat, but this is not a standard practice.
Mega-Damage:
Tail Whip: 2D6
Bite: 3D6
Body Block/Ram: 4D6 but counts as two attacks.
Underwater Combat Robot
Moderators: Immortals, Supreme Beings, Old Ones
Here's an adventure idea centered around the Sea Snake (and the Kraken).
Snake Factory
Hook: Over the past few months, the Kraken has had numerous encounters with a deadly new breed of robots they have named Sea Snakes. These comparatively tiny robots have been able to put up quite a fight before being destroyed, even in small groups. The Kraken was designed to assault land based targets, so it is actually more vulnerable against underwater assailants. They have been encountering greater and greater numbers of Sea Snakes as they head south, and the Bridge Crew suspects they are heading towards the factory responsible for these metal monsters.
Line: After another month of travel, the Kraken discovers the source of these monstrosities. The Machine built a state-of-the-art Industrial Center dedicated to churning out Sea Snakes right along the rocky shore, so it can keep flooding the Great Ocean with underwater hunter/killers. This factory must be destroyed immediately, but unfortunately, it is well protected from the Kraken’s heavy weapons. First, the waters are swarming with Sea Snakes. The Kraken cannot get within five miles of the factory without being overwhelmed by these robotic predators. The War Mount may actually be able to survive long enough to bombard the factory into oblivion, if it weren’t for the factory’s second line of defense, a powerful force field that covers the entire Industrial Center (except for a small opening underwater that is used to launch new Sea Snakes). The Bridge Crew fears they would exhaust the Kraken’s entire payload just trying to crack the force field, and then not have enough munitions to finish the factory. The best option is to release a small tactical team to sneak past the Sea Snakes, infiltrate the factory through the Sea Snake launch port, plant Squealers to guide in the Kamikaze Cruise Missiles, and then disable the force field. Once the field is down, the Kraken will brave a massive Sea Snake assault so it can move into bombardment range. It is a risky plan, but the factory must be destroyed.
Sinker: The Machine is learning from her previous mistakes. Most Industrial Centers are constructed with concrete, plastics, ceramics, and metal to maximize resources, but this factory is entirely constructed of metal. The ceilings, walls, and floors are entirely built with metal alloys. Every surface is also a complex mechanical device that serves no other purpose but to speed up a Nano Plague reaction against human intruders. It took a tremendous amount of resources to build, but the factory is important to Ishtar so she wanted to spare no expense. What this means for the infiltration team is that they will be triggering a Nano Plague response with every step. As long as the team is constantly moving, they should only trigger a mild reaction (or no response at all). Unfortunately, this mission also relies heavily on stealth, and these two strategies do not go together very well.
Snake Factory
Hook: Over the past few months, the Kraken has had numerous encounters with a deadly new breed of robots they have named Sea Snakes. These comparatively tiny robots have been able to put up quite a fight before being destroyed, even in small groups. The Kraken was designed to assault land based targets, so it is actually more vulnerable against underwater assailants. They have been encountering greater and greater numbers of Sea Snakes as they head south, and the Bridge Crew suspects they are heading towards the factory responsible for these metal monsters.
Line: After another month of travel, the Kraken discovers the source of these monstrosities. The Machine built a state-of-the-art Industrial Center dedicated to churning out Sea Snakes right along the rocky shore, so it can keep flooding the Great Ocean with underwater hunter/killers. This factory must be destroyed immediately, but unfortunately, it is well protected from the Kraken’s heavy weapons. First, the waters are swarming with Sea Snakes. The Kraken cannot get within five miles of the factory without being overwhelmed by these robotic predators. The War Mount may actually be able to survive long enough to bombard the factory into oblivion, if it weren’t for the factory’s second line of defense, a powerful force field that covers the entire Industrial Center (except for a small opening underwater that is used to launch new Sea Snakes). The Bridge Crew fears they would exhaust the Kraken’s entire payload just trying to crack the force field, and then not have enough munitions to finish the factory. The best option is to release a small tactical team to sneak past the Sea Snakes, infiltrate the factory through the Sea Snake launch port, plant Squealers to guide in the Kamikaze Cruise Missiles, and then disable the force field. Once the field is down, the Kraken will brave a massive Sea Snake assault so it can move into bombardment range. It is a risky plan, but the factory must be destroyed.
Sinker: The Machine is learning from her previous mistakes. Most Industrial Centers are constructed with concrete, plastics, ceramics, and metal to maximize resources, but this factory is entirely constructed of metal. The ceilings, walls, and floors are entirely built with metal alloys. Every surface is also a complex mechanical device that serves no other purpose but to speed up a Nano Plague reaction against human intruders. It took a tremendous amount of resources to build, but the factory is important to Ishtar so she wanted to spare no expense. What this means for the infiltration team is that they will be triggering a Nano Plague response with every step. As long as the team is constantly moving, they should only trigger a mild reaction (or no response at all). Unfortunately, this mission also relies heavily on stealth, and these two strategies do not go together very well.