[gurps] [VEHICLE] of the week 731 ? Planetary Defense Battery

[Onno Meyer]

> Neat idea!
> 
> How about a waterborn (possibly submersible for additional stealth and 
> storm protection) version of this to make it easier to give  more 
> world-wide coverage of water rich planets?

Yes and no. As described, this one is for a world somewhere between Mars 
and Luna, or perhaps slightly more atmosphere. Note the life support.

Going submersible would work best with a weapon that can be fired not just
in an atmosphere but also underwater. In the Traveller context, a meson 
gun. That means TL10, and at TL10 a submarine would have powerful 
reactionless thrusters. Oops, I've re-invented the System Defense Boat :-)

In a non-Traveller context, a sub-launched anti-orbital weapon might be a 
missile. In that case, the sub would look almost like a TL9 SSBN. 

I don't think VE says anything about lasers fired from water through air into
space. Maybe Atlantis or Blue Planet have rules, I haven't re-read them in a
while. Of course that would cut both ways - if a beam from a sub can kill a 
starship, shouldn't a beam from a starship be able to kill a sub? VE says a 
body of water is a blanket -8 to ladar, and starship sets should have the 
spare power to cope with that. (Something to consider for Traveller, too.)

And I'll have to decide if my space-defense sub is designed for planetary
threats, too. Lurking sub-fighters, robot torpedoes, the whole nine yards?

Lots of things to think about ... I've just finished a batch of TL11 stealth 
flyers, so maybe I have time for that.

> Any thoughts for using a beasty similar to this in an Ogre setting? except
> for the large human crew it would seem to fit right in with the setting to
> me.
> 
> Clint

As I remember it, Ogre has little or on space activity. I was more inspired
by Keith Laumer's Bolos, at a slightly less awesome scale and TL because I 
wanted to fit into an almost-canon Traveller. 

As for a manned Ogre, the rules were neatly written to give robot AFVs an
edge. They get better deals on access space and ultra-heavy frames.

Onno