[JAW]Oberon Powered Armor, Mk III

[zakueins]

Project Oberon was one of the many projects begun under the aegis of the Excaliber Program. Like most of the other Excaliber projects, it's goal was augmentation of the human soldier to make individual soldiers much more capable combatants. Project Oberon was a program to build a practical suit of powered battle armor, giving a trooper some resistance to infantry-carried weapons as well as enviromental protection.

 

However, the program grew out of control, as the Mark I and Mark II Oberon suits blossomed into one-man legged tanks (the Mark II weighed nearly three tons), and cost-overruns threatened to kill the project. In 2290, a new design team lead by Dr. Jeffery Dyson took over, and stripped down everything down to the basics. The result was the Oberon Mk. III, which was first fielded with Marine Force Recon units in 2300.

 

The core of the Mark III Oberon was the basic life suport system-rated to keep a user alive for at least a week without external support or supplies. It used a combination of CO2 scrubbing and self-contained oxygen supplies to keep the wearer alive, and supplimented this with sufficent suit rations to keep the operator fed.

Game Stats:Life Support (Self-Contained Breathing). OIF (-1/2), one Continuing Charge that lasts one week (-0), 7 pts; Life Support (Does Not Need To Eat), OIF (-1/2), eight Continuing Charges that last one day (-0), 2 pts.

 

Built into this sytem was a layered series of pseduo-muscular fibers. While their operation reqired training, it did allow the wearer to nearly double his strength and slightly increase his personal speed. The muscular fibers were self-powered (using any motion of the operator, even breathing, to continue to recharge themselves when not in use).

Game Stats:+15 STR, +1 SPD, OIF (-1/2), Does Not Affect Figured Characteristics (-1/2), 14 pts.

 

The Mark III's armor was a series of layered ceramics and composite materials, with several thin layers of gold foil and insulator to prevent radiation penetration and EMP effects. The armor was a "hard/soft" mixture, with the joints using a heavy duty ballistic fabric that was fairly resiliant to attack. This presented some problems in field repair, as the armor would require the replacement of damaged or destroyed plates, rather than repair.

Game Stats:15rPD/15rED, OIF (-1/2), 30 pts. 7 pts Power Defense, OIF (-1/2), 5 pts. Life Support (Safe vs. High Radiation, Low Pressure/Vacuum, High Temperatures, Low Tempratures, High Pressure) 6 pts)

 

The suit incorporated, in the helmet, the same UA multi-visual system that was designed to be "clipped on" to trooper helmets. Defense against bright lights and loud sounds were increases as well.

Game Stats:5 pts Flash Defense (Sound/Sight groups), OIF (-1/2), 6 pts. Sensor System (10 pts. multi-power, OIF (1/2), slots are:IR Perception (Sense, Telescopic +3), Night Vision (Sense, Telescopic +3), Ultraviolet Perception (Sense, Telescopic +3), Telescopic Vision (Vision Sense Group, +6 to PER rolls), 11 pts.

 

An integrated fire-control computer was built into the Oberon, designed to increase the accuracy of standard infantry weapons carried by soliders (the Mk. III had no built-in weapons, unlike the Mk. I and Mk. II). The system occasionally "threw" a target when aimed, but it was normally very reliable.

Game Stats:+4 OCV for ranged combat, OIF (-1/2), 14- Activation Roll (-1/2), 10 pts.

 

Integrated into the suit's backpack was a small Manned Manuvering Unit-mostly used to get a man in armor across from one ship to another or to ease combat in Zero-G enviroments. On a planet, it would allow the operator to make a few power-assisted leaps.

Game Stats:20 pts Multipower (OIF, -1/2), Powers Are-Flight 10" (only in space/low-G enviroments (-2), 4 charges of 5 minutes each), and Leaping 20"(4 boostable charges, -3/4), 15 pts).

 

It costs 103 points to have an Oberon Mk. III suit of powered armor.

 

During the War, improvements and variants were built to fuifil various mission roles. In 2330, the Mark III Mod B suit was deployed. This suit added several minor improvements, but primarily included slightly better armor (16 rPD/16 rED), an improved fire control computer that was dead-on accurate (remove the Activation roll), and two "bunny ears" designed to be stuck around objects to allow the wearer to see what was happening (Clairsentience, Sight and Hearing Groups, 0 END, Restrainable, OIF, Limited Range, 20 pts). Design rationalizations meant that the Marines were able to Issue the Mod B to all of it's troopers.

 

2345 saw the apperance of the Oberon Mark IV-it was almost entirely a Mark III Mod B suit, but it added several small improvements in sensors (Sensor Multipower increased to 15 pts, increase all Telescopics to +5 and +8), and suit strength (+20 STR). It also added the first integrated weapon into the Oberon-a "pop out" vibro-machette mounted in the forearm.

Game Stats:3D6 AP HKA, OIF (-1/2), STR bought as AP (15 pts), 60 pts.

 

2358 saw the Oberon Mark V, in sufficent time to participate in the Cleansing of the Militarized Zone and the start of Operation Future Peace. Design rationalizations and the industrial power of the Core Worlds made Mark V suits avalable to most of the UA military-most combat troops were wearing Mark V Oberons, and the Mark V added a layer of thermal superconductive armor, making it much more resiliant to attack by directed energy weapons.

Game Stats:25% Resistant Energy Damage Reduction, OIF Armor (-1/2), 10 pts).

 

The last generation of "wartime" Oberon powered armor was the Mark VI, which definitely started to see "feature creep" enter into the desgin. Reverse-engineered anti-gravity and thruster technology allowed the Mark VI to fly on it's own self-contained battery system and make powerful thruster-assisted leaps. (Remove all the limitations on the Flight multi-power slots, add 0 END (+1/2) to the multi-power, 22 pts). The suit added a grenade launcher in the backpack, designed to feed grenades from an internal magazine and fire them much further down-range.

Game Stats-+50 STR, OIF (-1/2), No Figured Characteristics (-1/2), Only To Make Standing Or Prone Throws Of Grenades (-2), 12 pts). The Mark VI was issued exclusively to the Marines from 2374, while it entered general production in 2396.

[NuSoardGraphite]

NICE!

 

Your PA designs look a lot like mine do.

 

Thus, I like it

[zakueins]

Excellent!

 

I built the Oberon on the KISS principal-if you get too complicated, you just cause a mess and that's not any fun....

 

Next up in My Alien Wars, the first generation of guns for the solider-Bead and Dart Guns.

 

Originally posted by NuSoardGraphite

NICE!

 

Your PA designs look a lot like mine do.

 

Thus, I like it

[Victor]

Re: [JAW]Oberon Powered Armor, Mk III

 

Only one quibble;

Originally posted by zakueins

Built into this sytem was a layered series of pseduo-muscular fibers. While their operation reqired training, it did allow the wearer to nearly double his strength and slightly increase his personal speed. [...]

Game Stats:+15 STR, +1 SPD, OIF (-1/2), Does Not Affect Figured Characteristics (-1/2), 14 pts.

Technically, that's 8x strength, not 2x.

 

Okay, two quibbles... I'd probably add an Extra Limb to the "grenade launcher" (with the same limitations), since you apparantly don't need a free hand to use it.

[NuSoardGraphite]

Good point Victor. I missed that.

 

If you want the armor to simply double lifting STR, but do more than simply +1D6 damage, provide a +5 STR bonus and add additional damage via Hand Attack power...I do that a lot myself.

[zakueins]

Almost forgot to add....

 

Radio Perception/Transmission, OIF (-1/2), w/linked KS:Encryption 21- 12 pts-The Mark III's encrypted radio link with other Oberon combat suits.

 

Spacial Awareness, 360 Degrees, OIF (-1/2), 21 pts-Displacement sensors, only in the Mark V and beyond.

[zakueins]

http://www.nightmarearmor.com/HaloGallery.html

 

Yep, I stole the Oberon from HALO, at least the basic design concepts.