Terran Guard Armory

So this most recent thread, one of the first battle plots for the Guard, has gotten me thinking about what sort of equipment the Guard typically employs. This thread is to sort of keep track of the standard-issue equipment available to the guard, or to discuss new additions, special-issue or customized gear... all that sort of thing. Perhaps later, if the staff blesses our efforts, we'll get an encyclopedia of advanced hardware going, or something along those lines. So this is the first entry, and I'll keep posting.

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Assault Armor
Designation A-12C
Type: Combat Hardsuit - Medium Duty
Weight: Approximately 15kg on average, depending on size of wearer.

Standard issue among the Terran Guard's elite recon forces, A-12 armor is similar to that used by elite human units toward the end of the year, though it incorporates refinements developed in the years since, as well as from the nonhuman races that have joined the Guard. The armor is naturally black, but the outer layer is coated in a special type of fiber-optic that allows it to shift colors to match its surroundings. The color-shift is low-resolution, capable only of enhancing the armor's ability to blend in, not of hiding it in plain sight. It does break up the silhouette effectively however, making it useful even after a firefight has broken out. The armor consists primarily of a dense mesh of extremely tough fibers, which are flexible but capable of hardening on impact to resist gunfire. In areas not requiring flexibility, hard composite plates are layered over the fibers, capable of deflecting even many high caliber rounds. The helmet of the armor is composed entirely of this material. Most suits have some degree of enchantment worked into these plates by mages and Other craftsmen, granting the armor some resistance to magical assault in addition to its other qualities. Beneath the outer armor layer there is a layer of impact-absorbing gel to mitigate attacks and heat transfer to the wearer.

The armors of the A-12 family also possess a small tactical computing unit, which projects a simple HUD into the clear visor of the helmet, indicating the positions of allies, known enemies, and displaying other crucial combat data. It can also interface with certain Terran Guard weapons for purposes of accurate targeting and ammo management. This capability can be increased by supplemental processor units, though due to their weight and power requirements, these are rarely carried except by officers. The armor's other powered system is a small array of myomer actuators, fibers which contract when electric current is applied, mimicking the function of human muscles. This system provides a minor enhancement to endurance and strength, negating the disadvantage of the armor's encumbrance, but not enough to increase the strength of the user by anything but a small percentage (10% at most, measured on the largest muscle groups). Its secondary purpose is to reinforce the joints of the user, as the actuators can lock against attacks that might otherwise break a joint, providing additional protection from injury to the wearer.

Other Variations:
A-12D - Light Reconnaissance Armor
Approximate Weight: 5kg

Designed for missions where even the relatively lightweight C variant armor would be too heavy, this is a stripped-down variant, though it retains many of the same features as its heavier cousin. D-type armor carries smaller or no solid plates, and omits the actuators, though with its lighter weight they are far less needed. Modern suits of this armor are constructed with removable sections along the back, to allow for winged wearers, as this lightweight type is usually favored by those species. Thanks to the much slimmer ablative layers of this armor, it can even be worn under clothes, without being terribly obvious.

(Credit to Angelo here, on the lightweight model!))

I'll think about some rifles and other weapons next. Truthfully, I don't imagine they've changed THAT much, the formula is always going to be similar, but I'm sure especially for heavy weapons, there are a few more exotic types.

A note on weaponry and tech levels:

Human technology has advanced roughly 150 years from its present levels in this setting. Because of the war, many technologies have advanced, though it is also true that many things have not changed - chemical based firearms like those used today are still more common than any other kind, as they are both effective and simple to produce. More advanced weapons are employed by advanced human forces, and the Terran Guard in particular has extremely advanced weapons available to them. While they lack the funding of the huge corporations and governments, they take extreme care to acquire only the best technology and equipment. Better, the Guard has access to human technology and Other magic both, and much of their best equipment is hybridized.

The last two armor types for now - one is the big one.

Heavy Combat Armor
Designation A-10A Atlas
Type: Heavy Combat Hardsuit - Power Assisted.
Weight: 550kg dry weight, maximum loadout 1230kg

One of the heaviest and most powerful land-based weapons deployed by the Terran Guard, the Atlas epitomizes the Guard's combat philosophy: Rather than the all-out, heavy warfare employed by many humans or the combat style of the Others, the A-10 allows for a melding of both tactics. Encased in the heavy armor, a Guard soldier is both highly mobile and capable of engaging the heaviest of enemies. With a thick outer shell of enchanted composite, mesh and gel underlayers, and powerful deployable energy barriers, the Atlas suits are the Order's walking tanks. Thousands of microhydraulic actuators allow the hulking, 12-foot high weapons to move with frightening speed while carrying weapons normally only carried by heavy armored vehicles. The armor can stand up to a fantastic amount of punishment, and its servos are capable of lifting nearly twenty tons for short spans.

The armor is powered by a combination of human power cells and mana charges, though unlike the smaller types of armor, its sophisticated computer system does not control its powered musculature. The suit's movement is instead supplemented by a second consciousness, the same as that which drives the golems forged by some clans of Others. This golem-spirit melds a portion of itself with the wearer, and it is this bond which activates the suit itself. The golem spirit also manages the mana-based aspects of the armor such as its protective enchantments and magic-based barriers. Meanwhile, the computer system is responsible for interfacing with the offensive weapons systems, target tracking, electronic warfare, and other informational support.

Despite being a juggarnaut on the battlefield, A-10 armor is not without its limitations. Its running speed is quick in a line, but its momentum is difficult to counter rapidly, limiting its agility. Its barriers are extremely effective at deflecting offensive spells, but the golem-spirit is only so effective at deflecting complex illusion spells and other types of more subtle spells. It's size also limits its efficacy at extremely close range against smaller targets, as does the response time of the microhydraulics. The greatest limitation of the suits is their limited number, however - the Guard has only manufactured a few platoons worth, and under treaty regulations can only deploy them in dire conditions, when authorized by the commanders of the Guard themselves.

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A-12B - Assault Armor, Reinforced
Weight: 35 kg
The third and heaviest variant of the A-12 armor, this suit is identical to the C type, though it benefits from the addition of significantly more solid plating and thicker mesh armor, as well as a considerably enhanced myomer system. This armor is far heavier however, and limited by the endurance of its power packs to twelve hours without swapping, making it unsuitable for lengthy deployments. As such it is used primarily by Guard units tasked with base defense. The weight and size of this armor limits mobility as the price for its strength, which amounts to a roughly 500% enhancement of the user's capability, allowing the user to carry and fire heavy weapons on the move. This armor is not used by recon forces, and its use outside Terran Guard property is restricted by treaty.

A few weapons I came up with, also.

While the Guard most commonly makes use of relatively simple projectile based weapons, as does most of the races who use technology in combat, there are a number of more exotic and advanced weapons that the Guard can deploy with its soldiers. Just like in the present day, there are a TON of weapons available I'm sure - I just wanted to give a few examples of what advanced weapons might be like in this setting.

M-57 Pulse Carbine
Type: Battle Rifle - Magrail
Ammunition: 125 round detachable box magazine, 2.67x14mm Discarding Sabot Frangible Penetrator Rounds
Weight: 8.5kg
Derived and refined from the battle rifles of the late-war human military, the M-57 is a highly accurate, burst-fire rifle using a cycling magnetic pulse to fire small ferrous rounds at extremely high velocity. Depending on its configuration, the weapon is roughly the size of many early 21st century rifles, though bulkier around the reciever and the action due to the heavy magnetic coil and its shielding, which prevents its firing from interfering with nearby battlefield electronics. In order to efficiently transfer kinetic energy without passing directly through the target, the 2.67x14mm FSEP round is designed in stages, with one flattening on impact to distribute the force, while the inner stage penetrates into the target before splintering and spreading out to create an expanding wound cavity. In this way, despite the smaller round, the damage of the 2.67mm round is comparable to much larger rounds, enabling the soldier to carry far more ammunition than with larger conventional rounds. The cost of course is in the rifle's weight - there is no escaping the weight of the mag-coil and its power cell.
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M-186 Plasma Cannon
Type: Heavy Plasma Rifle - Vehicle or Fixed-Mount
Weight: 35kg
Heavy enough that it is impossible to carry for an unsuited human, the M-186 is an extremely powerful heavy weapon, capable of melting through heavy armor in short order. Its intense thermal pulse is dangerous enough to cause severe damage to magical barriers as well, with the heat transfer being potentially lethal to the mage in question even through a barrier. When fired, the weapon focuses an array of twenty-six laser pulses on a pellet of metallic hydrogen ammunition, bringing the pellet near-instantly to sufficient temperature to induce a small nuclear fusion reaction. The resulting detonation is then channeled out the barrel by a powerful magnetic field and directed in a lance of plasma to the designated target. The M-186 cannons are among the most powerful re-usable weapons developed by humanity, and are both expensive and highly sought after. They do come with significant danger, however, in that should the magnetic field projectors be damaged or compromized, the uncontrolled detonation is more than sufficient to destroy the weapon, kill the user, and anyone else within several meters.
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Force Blades and other weapons
Carried occasionally by veteran Guard troops, particularly Others or those troops experienced in close combat with the Others, these weapons are forged of the toughest materials and often enchanted by skilled crafters. They are purpose-forged for their individual bearers in many cases, though the Guard does employ a standard-issue model that it makes available to its soldiers. These weapons produce an energy field around their solid edges, which enable them to both combat magic and energy-based threats as well as making them nearly unbreakable.