The Archeopteryx class Wing Pack was developed by House Mendel for the Archangel class O.C.C. as a heavy hitting Wing Pack. When worn the Archeopteryx head lays flattish-ly on top of the head of its' pilot. It extends a small series of pincher like claws from it's neck and throat that pierce the neck of the pilot to better connect with its bonded pilot giving him/her superior flight control and a bonus to aim both the rockets and bomb-lets, plus the added benefit of also letting its pilot use its eyes to see and help with targeting. This also means that any enhancements to the Packs eyes are passed along to the pilot. The same goes for any other sensory enhancement.
When not connected to it's pilot its' head takes on it's normal shape so it can consume the rocks and minerals needed to regrow/replenish it's weapons. Further enhancements are usually limited to sensory enhancements, flight enhancements i.e. Organic Thrusters, and those that enhance it's current weapons configuration.
Class: One-Man Aerial Wing Pack Meant for Anti-Tank/Large Robot (i.e. bigger than humanoid size)/Close Arial Troop Support.
Crew: One pilot. Available only to the Archangel O.C.C. of Minor House Mendel and the other Minor houses of House Hammond
M.D.C. by Location:
Head (1): 30 Note head is small and requires a "Called Shot" with a -3 penalty to hit.
Wings (2): 120 each -
Main Body: 180 (Depleting the M.D.C. of the main body kills it. If this happens in flight, the pilot could fall to his death, 10D10 M.D. per 200 feet 161 m of height).
Note: Any additional features added with Bio-E points are small and difficult targets to hit, thus, they can only be hit when an opponent makes a "Called Shot" with a -3 penalty to hit.
M.D.C. Regeneration: As a living organism, the Wing Pack regenerates and heals from damage at a rate of 1D12 M.D.C. per hour for the main body and 1D8 M.D.C. per hour for the wings and other locations. To regrow wings or other destroyed systems, each must have at least two M.D.C. point remaining. If M.D.C. is reduced to zero, that feature/item is destroyed.
Speed:
Running: The pilot can run on the ground with his own legs while wearing the Wing Pack as normal for him.
Leaping: Leaping is not possible, unless the Wing Pack is used to give the pilot a lift and a little gliding action. 60 feet (18.3 m) high and 150 feet (45.7 m) across for wing assisted leaps.
Digging and Swimming: Not possible when the Wing Pack is attached.
Flying: Top speed of 300 mph (480 km). Cruising is typically 100 to 170 mph (160 to 272 km).
Gliding: The Wing Pack is capable of silent gliding at speeds between 60 and 160 mph (96 to 256 km).
Accelerated Dive: 500 mph (800 km) in a steep downward dive.
Maximum Altitude: From a stationary hover up to 15,000 feet (4,572 m) above the ground.
Flight Range: If flying non-stop, must rest for one hour after every 10 to 12 hours of flying. Indefinitely with frequent (once every hour or so), intermittent rests for a few (1D8) minutes at a time.
Statistical Data:
Height: Equivalent to a large backpack with wing-like and tail-like appendages protruding from the back.
Width/Wingspan: 4 feet (1.2 m) folded, 16 feet (4.9 m) with wings fully extended.
Length: 3 feet (0.9 m) at the center of the main body.
Weight: 300 pounds (135 kg).
Cargo: Only what the wearer can carry in his hands or strapped to his chest.
Physical Strength: No change or bonuses due to the Wing Pack.
Production Cycle: Six months gestation, plus four months final growth time. This is due to it's dual metabolism.
Operational Lifetime: 2D1O+40 years.
Trade Value: 50,000 credits, but they are rarely sold or traded.
Senses & Features: Archeopteryx class Wing Packs come with Feathered Wings (add 40 mph/64 kph to all flying speeds and +1 to strike when airborne),
Feeding: Archangel Archeopteryx class Wing Packs have been modified to have a dual metabolism:
1) Just like an air fern, the Wing Pack uses sunlight, water and microorganisms filtered from the air to produce its own food via photosynthesis, so the suit needs no outside food source as long as it is regularly exposed to the light (at least five hours a day).
2) Lithovore metabolism: The suit eats from 100 to 150 lbs of minerals (stones, rocks, dirt, clay, etc.) a day. This is for the Plasma-Bird Bio-Weapons Systems: Plasma Rockets, Plasma Bomb-lets, and duel Casting Guns mounted to the tops of the Wing Packs shoulders.
Sleep Requirements: The Wing Pack does not actually "sleep" but needs a total of four hours of inactivity per day.
Combat Bonuses (applicable to any wearer of a Wing Pack): + 1 on initiative, +2 to dodge and can come to a complete (hovering) stop in one melee action (about three seconds). Bonuses only apply when airborne and are in addition to any bonuses from an O.C.C. or Pilot Wing Packs skill.
Archeopteryx Weapon Systems:
Feathered Bio-Weapons Systems:
1) Crystalline Feather Rockets: The outer first five feathers on each wing tip and the eleven largest tail feathers at the end of the tail are crystalline feather rockets which are as beautiful as they are deadly. If fired from the ground or in normal flight these rockets will fly out straight out and away from the wing pack then coarse correct to hit it's target. If however they are released in a flinging/whipping fashion i.e. when the tips of the wings come together to the front of the Archangel and or the tail is whipped forward between the pilots legs they get a +2 to hit bonus and a +5 to damage. This is on top of the fact that each feather rocket acts as the bio equivalent of a high tech mini-missile. The coloration on the tips are also a neural bundle that makes each feather it's own guided missile. This gives each feather an innate +5 to both strike and dodge until the target is hit (that's in addition to the bonus caused by the a fore mentioned flinging bonus) and the feather detonates on impact. There are multiple types of rockets available and the pilot can chose at the time of creation. Choices have certain rules, individual feathers of a wing maybe different rocket types (i.e. the right wing may have a mix of 1 he, 1 heap, and 3 heat then the left wing must be 1 he, 1 heap, and 3 heat) so long as both wings fire the same missile type. The tail feathers can be different also so long as each side match's.
Types available are: he - high explosive - 1D4X10 M.D. to a 10 foot area.
: heap - high explosive anti-personnel - 2D4X10 M.D.C. Additional damage occurs from the crystalline shards/shrapnel. Anything between 21' to 50' takes additional 4D6 damage.
: heat - high explosive anti-tank - 1D6X10 M.D.C.
: plasma - 1D8X10 M.D.C. and additional burn damage from the continuing burning plasma doing 3D6 M.D. for 1D4 melee rounds till it burns out. Additional damage occurs from the crystalline shards/shrapnel. Anything between 21' to 50' takes additional 4D6 damage.
-Special note choosing Plasma requires authorization (i.e. the player must provide a really good argument to the GM why she/he should be allowed to have the plasma option) from not just the Warlord of their own House but the Warlord of the main house, House Hammond. The reason this Wing Pack was created is to give the houses a close-in aerial anti-armor support for troops on the ground. This Wing Pack is meant to be a surgeon's scalpel not a baseball bat swung around by a town drunk on the Fourth of July. ***
Primary Purpose: Anti-Robot and Anti-Armor
Secondary Purpose: Assault and Defense
M.D.C. of the Rockets: 20 each, after launch the feather/rocket is treated as a high tech mini-missile to be shot down as per usual.
Mega-Damage: Depends on the type of rocket chosen. See the above for damage per type. Type is determined at time of creation.
Rate of Fire: They can be launched volleys of 2 (1 per wing/tail side to get the volleys of 2) up to it's entire payload.
Effective Range: 3 miles
Payload: 5 per wing tip, and 11 on the tail tip.
Bonus: The coloration on the tips is also a neural bundle that makes each feather it's own guided missile. This gives each feather an innate +5 to both strike and dodge until the target is hit. If however they are released in a flinging/whipping fashion i.e. when the tips of the wings come together to the front of the Archangel and or the tail is whipped forward between the pilots legs they get a +2 to hit bonus and a +5 to damage.
2) Crystalline Feather Bomb-lets: These are the equivalent of rifle powered/thrown grenades. Smaller explosive feathers designed for flinging or dropping. There are multiple types of bomb-lets available and the pilot can chose at the time of creation. Choices have certain rules, individual feathers of a wing maybe different bomb-lets types (i.e. the right wing may have a mix of 3 he and 7 fragmentation then the left wing must be 3 he and 7 fragmentation) so long as both wings fire the same missile type. The tail feathers can be different also so long as each side match's.
Types available are: he - high explosive - 3D6 M.D. to a 6 foot area.
Fragmentation: 2D6 M.D. to a 20 foot (6 m) area. Additional damage occurs from the crystalline shards/shrapnel. Anything between 11' to 20' takes additional 2D6 damage.
Plasma: 5D6 M.D. to a 12 foot area (3.6 m) area. Additional damage occurs from the crystalline shards/shrapnel. Anything between 11' to 20' takes additional 2D6 damage.
-Special note choosing Plasma requires authorization (i.e. the player must provide a really good argument to the GM why she/he should be allowed to have the plasma option) from not just the Warlord of their own House but the Warlord of the main house, House Hammond. The reason this Wing Pack was created to give the houses a close-in aerial anti-armor support for troops on the ground. This Wing Pack is meant to be a surgeon's scalpel not a baseball bat swung around by a town drunk on the Fourth of July. ***
Primary Purpose: Assault and anti-personnel
Secondary Purpose: Defense and demolition
M.D.C. of the Bomb-lets: Fragmentation 5 M.D.C., High Explosive and Plasma 10 M.D.C.
Mega-Damage: Depends on the type of Bomb-lets chosen. See the above for damage per type. Type is determined at time of creation.
Rate of Fire: They can be launched volleys of 2 (1 per wing/tail side to get the volleys of 2) up to it's entire payload.
Effective Range: Can be flung/thrown approximately 300 yards or ejected/dropped.
Payload: 16 total along the tail, 10 per wing along the bottom of the wings between body and wing tip/Crystalline bomb-lets.
Bonus: If however they are released in a flinging/whipping fashion i.e. when the tips of the wings come together to the front of the Archangel and or the tail is whipped forward between the pilots legs they get a +2 to hit bonus and a +3 to damage.
3) Casting Guns: (2 each) weapons looks like a gun made of flesh and bone. It uses the Wing Pack's lithovore waste, condensed, and dehydrated, like an owl's castings. These pellets are redirected into the Casting Gun, and filled with a powerful explosive chemical also generated inside the Wing Pack. The Casting Gun then uses a combination of natural explosive gases, which are similar to methane, to fire and propel the explosive pellets at supersonic velocities. However, the weapon only has enough casting pellets to fire a limited number of rounds before the Pack must wait for its next meal to digest and thereby create new ammunition pellets. The new pellets are automatically redirected to the weapon that needs them.
Payload: 60 rounds per weapon. Casting Guns are automatically reloaded after every meal (replenishing as many as the payload for two Casting Guns 2D10+20 minutes after every meal).
Prerequisite: In addition to the specific prerequisite for each of the Casting Guns, the Wing Pack is a duel metabolism lithovore. Additionally, the pellets produced by a lithovore are harder than the others; add +3 M.D. to their single shot and + 10 M.D. to their burst damage.
Casting Thrower:
M.D.C. of the Casting Thrower: 106xl0 M.D.
Length of the Casting Thrower: The barrel of the Casting Guns appear as only a pair of small recessed openings in the top of the Wing Packs shoulders. They can fire straight ahead in flight ala Superman, or they can depress downward to shoot straight when standing. To fire to the left or right requires the entire body to move to face the desired firing direction.
Mega-Damage: 1D8 M.D. per single shot or a four pellet burst that inflicts 3D8 M.D.
Rate of Fire: Each shot or burst counts as one melee attack.
Maximum Effective Range: 1200 feet (366 m).
Bonus: None.
Bio-E Cost: 5 points.
Prerequisite: None.
4) Grappling Hooks: A pair of grappling hooks (that resemble Archeopteryx leg claws) and regenerating towlines are a standard feature of all Archeopteryx class Wing Packs. Aerial Combat Notes: The grappling hooks are such a part of an Archangel's arsenal it might as well be part of his Wing Pack. It has several novel uses in conjunction with flying, including hooking onto drones, robots, and light vehicles to be pulled along while slowly closing ranks or engaging in close quarter dogfights, or snaring unsuspecting ground troops (but not really heavy bots) and pulling them off their feet (Note: Counts as two melee attacks, but the victim also loses two attacks and initiative), and may drag them along the ground or up into the air. (Note: While airborne or being dragged, the victim loses half his attacks per round, loses initiative, shooting is done as "wild," and the character is -5 to strike, parry and dodge, and -50% to perform a skill. Furthermore, those dragged across the ground suffer 1D6 M.D. per melee round and can be slammed into something big and heavy, taking about 2D4x10 M.D.; half damage if only dropped from a great height. Note that the act of slamming into an object usually knocks the victim off the hook and line; 01-90% chance.)
One favorite tactic is "bowling for bots" in which a robot or drone is snared and swung, hurled, or rolled into a group of other robots or drones. The force of impact inflicts 4D6 M.D. to the "bowling ball," plus the rolling robot/drone knocks 2D4 robots/drones off their feet and sends them tumbling to the ground (they lose initiative and one melee action and suffer 2D6 M.D. from the force of impact; the G.M. may also want to roll to see if any weapons were dropped by those bowled over; 01-70% chance).
The grappling hook can also be used to make incredibly sharp turns by snagging the grappling hook onto a pole, tree, giant robot, etc., to swing the Wing Pack's wearer around terrain features at high speeds and tight angles and then release and continue to fly in the new or opposite direction without slowing down more than 15%! This "slingshot" maneuver stuns everybody who sees it, causing spectators and would-be assailants to lose one melee attack/action before they can recover and respond.
Primary Purpose: Assault.
Secondary Purpose: Maneuvering.
Mega-Damage: As noted above.
Rate of Fire: Once each combat round (15 seconds).
Maximum Effective Range: About 40 feet (12.2 m), ropes longer than this are difficult to use.
Payload: Generally carries two grappling hook.
Bonus: +2 to strike with the grappling hook.
Penalties: If these maneuvers knock the Wing Pack's wearer out of control, a roll is necessary to avoid crashing (at -20% to the Wing Pack piloting skill). An unsuccessful skill roll means roll
percentile and see what happens:
01-33% Crash: The Wing Pack takes 2D6x10 M.D., the pilot 5D6 M.D., plus he is stunned for one melee round, and the wings must be stretched out and flexed before the pilot can get airborne again, which uses up three melee actions of the next round.
34-66% Clip the ground or trees: Loses control for two melee rounds (no attacks/actions) as he spins out of control, and nicks, clips, and butts the ground, treetops or buildings, but manages to stay airborne and the Wing Pack only takes 5D6 M.D. from being banged around, and the pilot suffers only 1D6 M.D.
67-00% Spins out of control briefly: The pilot manages to stay airborne and takes no damage, but remains wobbly and out of control for 1D4 melee rounds, during which he loses initiative and half his attacks/actions per melee.
2. Handheld Weapons: The standard Wing Pack does not have any kind of built-in weapon (other than the grappling hook), but the pilot/wearer can use any gun or handheld weapons he'd like.
3. Hand to Hand Combat: The flyer enjoys certain benefits from leverage, height and speed when flying and striking at speeds of at least 50 mph (80 kph) . + ID6 to Punch and Kick attack damage. + ID8 M.D. to damage from melee weapons like swords and clubs.+1D1O M.D. to Flying Body Block and has a 15% chance of knocking an opponent off his feet for every 100 mph (160 km) of speed. Flying Stiff Leg Kick (both feet): 2D10 M.D. per every 100 mph (160 km) of speed, but uses up one melee attack/action for every 100 mph (160 km) of speed. May be used with a dive, but that also inflicts 1D10 M.D. damage to the pilot and the Wing Pack.
Archangel's Personal Wing Pack:
The Archangel can always get access to a standard Wing Pack (see description of the basic unit in the Equipment section of the Splicers book) for general use from his Great House, but also gets a souped-up, customized Wing Pack as his personal combat vehicle.
Wing Pack Bio-Enhancements:
Sensors: The Archangel's Personal Wing Pack automatically gets Radar and 2D10 Bio-E points for additional Eyes & Vision and/or Other Sensory Enhancements of choice.
Ranged Bio-Weapons: 3D10 Bio-E points that can be spent on Ranged Bio-Weapons. Additional 12 Bio-E per level of advancement gained by the Archangel. If the character's personal Wing Pack is destroyed, another will be issued, but it will be a standard model with 6D6+6 additional Bio-E in enhancements. Any further improvements require the Archangel to gain additional levels of experience.
The lower initial Bio-E for personalization is due to the amount of beginning weapons plus the cost of dual metabolism. Afterwards the Archangel's standard Bio-E accumulation resumes.
*** All the Warlords and even the Magi agree that there is one good reason for allowing the choice of all Plasma feathers and that is saturation or carpet bombing an area in preparation for a ground based assault. This being said a unit was formed recruiting three of the best, the bravest, and the craziest Archangels from all seven Houses to form the Fire-bird Flight group. This group is permanently stationed at House Mendel. Note this unit is meant more as an N.P.C. group for the players to interact with but Not be a part of. Unless the character in question has done something to be expelled from the unit and then will most likely be issued a new starter Archeopteryx Wing Pack.
Thank you for looking and please feel free to comment or ask questions.
Thank you for pointing that out. I'll edit in the correction either later tonight or ASAP. Please keep up with the commenting. One of the reasons I belong to so many forums yet post so sparingly is that to often the replies are, to be polite, less than polite. So far I've found that the folks here really are different, but in a good way. 