PMIM: A Visit to the Archive

The Archive, E. Eridani II, 26 May 2430

“Provost, I am grateful for the offer of a message of Lost Earth, but a man of the worlds such as I must take practical matters into account.”

“Of course, Margrave . We scholasts understand that not all can be as devoted to knowledge as ourselves. The message contains, as well as its historical content, a previously unknown tread design for the Hippo amphibious tractor.”

“Tractor?”

“A vehicle used for pulling farming machinery in the Seeding era.”

“The very idea! Using vehicles for something a donkey could do.”

“In the days of our forefathers, when Earth was not yet lost, they had the wealth for such marvels. In these times, the Hippo is most notable for having interchangeable parts with the Mammoth GST.”

“And so these treads will work on Mammoths?”

“Precisely, my lord.”

“And what benefits would they provide?”

“The message indicates superior performance in muddy ground, but, of course, we at the Archive have no Mammoths to test this with.”

“Very well. I have asked my seneschal to send a tithe of wheat from my estate on New New York. It will arrive within the week.”

“Many thanks, your lordship.”

Tech Havens

Some research stations and other minor colonies retained advanced technology despite the damage done by the Revanchment Wars. Generally, these are on inhospitable worlds, with limited manufacturing capabilities and small populations. In many cases, only sealed environments are habitable, and without external support, the population is severely limited. Some tech havens posess technologies that are not replicable elsewhere.

Notable Tech Havens

• The Archive at Eridani is located on the surface of Sirius II, a barren husk of a world blasted by its enormous sun. The inhabitants live in a library-city dug into the crust, which holds the last recordings sent from Earth. Many of the transmissions are encrypted, intended for the Earth-bound factions’ colony ships. The Archivists are willing to sell redacted copies of messages, some of which include details about technologies that are otherwise lost, but refuse to divulge any information about the intended recipients or the originating factions.
• New Sumer is a tidally locked world, one side in constant day and the other in eternal night. The majority of the population lives in the twilight zone, eking out a subsistence existence by growing a variety of grain crops. Two tech havens exist on New Sumer, one at each pole. The Day City performs a variety of high-energy manufacturing, including aluminum refinement. The Night City is officially a monastic retreat, but is noted as a source of military and political advisors for the nobles of the Fioran Confederacy, and as a convenient destination for their inconvenient relations. By decree of the Fioran Council, no residents of the polar cities are permitted to operate free-moving vehicles - all movement of heavy goods within the polar cities is done by train, while external transit must be done by non-residents.
• Hermes 7 is a space station near the Alpha Centauri warp point. The station maintains a small clean room and integrated circuit fabrication facility, and as a result has a disproportionate influence for its small size.. Weapons are forbidden in the main wheel of the station, and the exits from the docking wheel are heavily guarded by mercenary troops from Nieu Friesland.

Masterpiece

Landedam, Dortheim, 15 May SY 2428

While a young apprentice worked the bellows, Albrecht’s tongs held the final tread segment in the furnace. Satisfied that the metal was hot enough, he withdrew it and lay it back on the great anvil of the workshop. A fellow journeyman took up a hammer and began striking while Albrecht used the tongs to reposition the work under the hammer. As the metal cooled, Albrecht took a ruler and magnifier and checked his work; for the tread to be accepted as a masterpiece by the Treadwright’s Guild, each piece needed to meet the millimeter tolerances of the original Galactic Standard Template, rather than merely fitting together as a whole. Finding the piece slightly out of tolerance, he plunged the work back into the furnace; another round of heating and hammering should finish the job.

Setting: The Mammoth and the Galactic Standard Template

A main battle tank originally of Seeding-era design, the Mammoth is meant to run on anything that burns and fire anything that explodes. Aboard the resource-rich mining cities of Jotunheim, Mammoths are powered by jet fuel and fire discarding-sabot tungsten projectiles using the latest explosives. When operated by the tanker-barons of the Spinward Reach, the Mammoth’s turbine generator is run on refined vegetable oils or even distilled alcohol, and black powder launches round lead shot from the same smooth bore cannon.

The engineers of the Seeding era designed a range of vehicles, appliances, and heavy equipment that could be produced, operated, and maintained with the contents of a 200-ton standard colony module. Further, a computerized Galactic Standard Template system could automatically modify the designs to account for local variance in available resources, handling alloy variations and even using different metals entirely. GST military vehicles are designed with interchangeable weapons, although in the Plasteel Age, manufacturing precision has fallen to the point where weapon replacements require months of work by expert mechanics and engineers. As such, tanks based on the Mammoth design can be found mounting every 10-ton weapon, from lasers to plasma cannons.

By 2430, no full GST systems are still in operation in the Core Kingdoms, as a result of sabotage and destruction in warfare. Some blueprints are common, however, and are frquently copied, traded and sold. Some Tech Havens are rumored to possess GST systems with fragmentary databases, and the enclaves of the Outer Black are often built around a partially operational GST, though they typically lack the resources and fabrication capacity to take full advantage of it. The discovery of a new GST design is a cause for celebration and conflict. More than one war has been launched by a power-hungry noble in possession of a newly recovered GST blueprint, trying to seize the advantage before the new design can be replicated.

Giver of Rings

Giver of Rings

Smoke from the great fire filled the plasteel rafters of the feast hall. As the skald finished the saga of Sven Bear-burner’s settlement of Delta Ursae Minoris II, Oli Redbeard stepped forth to lead the next part of the celebration.

“A toast! To our hero, the slayer of giants! To the master of this hall, the ring-giver! To Egil Svenson!”

Mead sloshed as the gathered warriors raised their glasses. “Egil!”

The honoree sat at the end of the hall, surrounded by the spoils of battle: gold and gems, of course, but far more precious to the Ursans was the aluminum and copper captured from an ore hauler as it returned to its base.

“Pietr, come forth.” called Egil.

A black-haired giant of a man, clad in furs, stood and walked toward the throne, limping slightly from an injured leg.

“For our rock, my berserker, twenty kilos of alum and the duke’s knife.”

Pietr knelt to receive the knife. “Many thanks, ring-giver.”

As he returned to his seat, Egil called for another warrior, giving him a kilo of copper and a gold ring. The celebration would go on far into the night, and in the morning, the men would take the spoils of battle to the settlement’s autofab, where the precious copper and aluminum could be worked into the marvels of their forefather’s time, the Second Age of Exploration.

Chronology

• The First Colonies: Mankind reaches the stars using slower-than-light travel and cryosleep.
• The Seeding: humanity invents the warp gate, and launches them to the stars in robotic ships
• The Lost Centuries: Earth is destroyed in nuclear war. Some escape by slow boat or warp gate, but no clear picture of the events ever emerges.
• The Joining: The colonies reconnect as warp gates arrive. A golden age of science, an age of mourning for the lost Earth.
• The Second Age of Exploration: The pre-Seeding colonies launch colonies of their own on freshly seeded worlds.
• The Stagnation: The limits of the Seeding’s original warp gate network are reached. Competition for the limited space of colony worlds leads to war. The Warmech is developed as a military variant of civilian loader frames.
• The Collapse: Wars result in the destruction of many of the warp gates. Trade and diplomacy collapse as a result. The interstellar empires of the first colonies collapse. The rump states become the Core Kingdoms. Many technologies are lost, as their manufacture requires resources that are no longer readily available through interstellar travel.
• The Reconnection: An FTL drive that can arrive at the wreckage of a gate is developed by the Fioran Confederation. Rebels sieze a jumpship, reverse engineer the drive, and broadcast the plans to every world they can reach.
• The Wars of Revanchment: The Core Kingdoms go to war to reclaim their former territories. Although some technologies are reinvented, many are permanently lost, and the destruction of most autofabs means computers are no longer easily replaceable. The end of the Silicon Age.
• The Plasteel Age: the present day, everything is barely maintained, factories exist in some places but the tools to build them no longer do. Remaining pieces of high technology are now the basis of government throughout the settled worlds.

While Hammers Fell, Lances and Points, Take and Hold

Fiction: While Hammers Fell

outside Landedam, Dortheim, 3 Aug SY 2428
Albrecht shifted in his seat, unused to the cockpit of the Beaver’s Promise, the Vinge medium Warmech that had been granted to him on reaching the rank of master in the Treadwright’s guild. He would almost have preferred his former seat as a commander of a Tyrant superheavy tank, the cornerstone of Dortheim’s industry and defense, but his new station demanded he take arms as a Mechholder of the Guild.

“Attention all units, drop pods hit in ten! Nine! Eight!..”

Albrecht looked up and saw the smoke trails descending towards the field in front of him.

“Seven! Six!”

Albrecht shifted again and set his hands back on the unfamiliar controls. Though he had piloted loader frames as an apprentice, they lacked the responsiveness and degrees of freedom of a proper Warmech.

“Five! Four!”

He flicked off the safety on his left arm plasma cannon, then the autocannon on his mech’s right arm.

“Three! Two!”

Albrecht tensed on the triggers, ready to answer whatever emerged.

“One! Impact!”.

A pod smashed into the ground a quarter klick ahead, out of effective range of the plasma cannon, but well within range for an autocannon. Albrecht sighted on it, started his mech lumbering forwards. “With me, men!”.

The pod opened, unleashing a Basset, ten tons lighter than his own Vinge. Behind it, man-sized pods released their cargo: a squad of mercenaries in power armor. Albrecht fired his autocannon at the Basset, ripping an arm off it. Behind him, his old Tyrant opened up with its heavy laser, burning a pair of mercenaries out of their armor. The answering fire was deadly; three of his apprentices, called up as infantrymen, were slain. He steadied his aim again, trying to close with the Basset before it could do more harm.

The invader would have none of it. He backed off and took cover behind his pod. “Jacob, I need a flanker.” His journeyman, acting as a GEV pilot, responded immediately, sending his Ascarid screaming forward to the left, taking the Basset from its flank. Albrecht broke right, followed by the Tyrant, though his apprentices lagged behind on foot.

As the Ascarid fired on the Basset, the enemy mech charged forward, trying to keep the pod between itself and Jacob’s plasma cannon. Albrecht smiled - the Basset had played right into his hands. As it closed to 100 meters, Albrecht fired with his own plasma cannon. He scored a hit on the left leg, smashing its workings open. The Basset stumbled, but responded with an answering burst of plasma fire, though its light plasma cannon couldn’t penetrate his heavier armor in one shot.

The Tyrant behind him fired again, this time focusing on the Basset. The beam raked across the Basset’s torso, baring its interior to Albrecht’s next burst. As the Basset stumbled forward, Albrecht took aim again. This time, his plasma cannon smashed through the right leg of the Basset, sending it careening to the ground. As his apprentices sawrmed it, Albrecht moved on; a downed Warmech was no threat, and was as likely to be spoils of war for the Treadwright’s Guild as it was to be salvaged by the invaders.

Rules: Lances, Points, and Unit Selection

The basic unit of organization for typical armies in Plastic Mechs and Iron Men is the Lance, composed of a Warmech and its supporting vehicles and infantry. In principle, each Lance is worth 36 points total, although scenarios will generally specify only a total points limit and a number of Warmechs to select, rather than requiring that forces be precisely divisible into Lances. For instance, the Take and Hold scenario has a limit of 72 points and two Warmechs, so a valid selection would be two Lancelots at 15 points each, 6 Mammoths at 4 points each, and 9 infantry squads at 2 points each, although this selection cannot be broken evenly into two lances with one Warmech each.

Scenario: Take and Hold

Sides: two, symmetric.
Points: 72 per side.
Warmechs: 2 per side.
Map: 20x14 hexes, short grain.
Deployment: Each player deploys along a long edge of the map. Infantry deploy within four hexes of the edge, vehicles and Warmechs within two hexes of the edge.
Objectives: Six objective hexes are located along the center line of the map, with a 1-hex radius capture zone around them. At the end of each round, if one players has more units adjacent to an objective, that player gains one Victory Point. The first player to end a turn with more than 10 Victory Points while having more Victory Points than their opponent wins.

Titanomachy

Artois, Neo-Burgundy, Ile St Germaine, 17 June SY 2430

The vox crackled. “Hostile Warmech, two blocks north, one west, moving east. Mjolnir heavy”. Reginald, already moving north, pushed the throttle forward, bringing the Martel, his Paladin heavy Warmech, to a trot. As the heavy Warmech accelerated slowly into its new gait, he flicked off the safeties and charged the left arm’s plasma cannon. The Mjolnir rounded the corner and he fired into its right shoulder, turning two tons of plasteel armor into so much slag. As it twisted towards him, he slammed the throttle forward, pushing the Paladin into a run, and raked its right flank with a burst of autocannon fire from his mech’s right arm. The Mjolnir, caught off guard, ground to a halt and spun as it tried to keep him in its front arc.

Reginald ducked his mech into a side street as he brought it back down to a walk. “Well spotted. Any ID?”.

“Not positive, my lord. Blue and red livery, a wolf rampant.” replied the GEV pilot who had made the initial call.

“Ulrik Stormhand, Jarl of Vindsval. His Mjolnir’s modified, left arm is a Gauss gun” said a third voice.

“Thank you, heraldry”. Reginald turned his mech around, readying himself for another confrontation. The young knight took a moment to steady himself, fingers brushing the hammer and fluer-de-lis sigil carved into the Martel’s console.

“That Mjolnir’s headed your way, sir.”

“Roger. I’ll take him alone”. Reginald brought the mech back up to a trot, knowing he couldn’t afford to give Ulrik an easy shot with a Gauss gun. The Mjolnir came into view at about 30 meters, a short range for such a mech. Reginald pushed his mech into an angled charge, twisting his mech’s torso to keep the Mjolnir from drawing a bead on anything vital. As he closed to 20 meters, he activated the autocannon, pouring a full magazine of late-detonating shells into the Jotunheimer’s left torso. Ulrik fired in response. His Gauss gun’s kinetic projectile cracked like thunder into the Paladin’s right shoulder. Reginald swore as the damage indicators lit up, showing that his Warmech’s right arm was immobilized. He dumped another mag of autocannon into the Mjolnir, unable to miss at such short range. This time, the shells cracked the plasteel on the Warmech’s left torso, showing the capacitor banks beneath. As the Jotunheimer’s mech shook, the young knight brought his plasma cannon to bear on the Mjolnir’s damaged shoulder. A burst of laser fire from the Jarl cooked one of Reginald’s vision blocks, but it was too little, too late. Reginald fired, and a capacitor in the target’s shoulder burst into flame, causing a cascading failure. As the Mjolnir’s damage control sprang to life, Reginald lowered his mech’s shoulder and braced for impact.

“Quarter! Quarter!” came over a clear channel, the Jarl surrendering rather than see his Warmech and himself cut to pieces.

Reginald halted his mech, scanning for further enemies. “And your men?”
“All units, this is Jarl Ulrik Stormhand. Lay down your arms. We surrender.”

 The Warmech

The premier combat units of the Dark Age of Technology are the Warmechs, colossal humanoid robots powered by fusion generators and driven by polymer pseudo-muscles. Warmechs range from 20 tons for the lightest, such as the Shrew reconnaissance mech, to 120 tons for the heaviest, such as the Paladin close assault mech. With better all-terrain capabilities, and fields of fire than a traditional tank, Warmechs dominate the fields of battle of the 25th century. As a result, from the guildmasters of the Free Stars to the sworn brethren of the Order of the Void, those leaders with the resources to maintain them have taken over most of the settled worlds.

Arms and Armor

The Warmech is classically armored in plasteel, a composite material blending advanced plastics and steel alloys. Some Mechholders choose to mount carbon-fiber composite instead, which is harder to repair but lighter, allowing for greater speed or a heavier combat load. Others use more primitive materials, such as aluminum alloy.

Most Warmechs have two weapon mounts located on the arms. While this leaves them more exposed to enemy fire, it also allows for maximum aim flexibility. Typically, mechs are armed with one projectile weapon and one energy weapon, although exceptions exists, such as the Mjolnir, which has a standard armament of a light laser cluster in the right arm and a particle cannon in the left. In addition to the standard weapon mounts, some Warmechs have shoulder mounts, which most often carry limited-use missile pods.

Godkillers

East Hrungnirheim, Asgard, Jotunheim. 22 May SY 2430

The auxiliary fans howled as Darius cut the throttle and slammed the joystick to the left, putting the Sword of Saladin into an unstable slide. The left wall of the GEV’s plenum chamber scraped across the thin soil, bleeding velocity and tightening the turn. As he released the stick and brought the throttle forward, an arc of dirt flashed into steam and dust to his right. From the gunner’s perch on Darius’s right, Eskandar swung the light particle cannon around to aim another shot at the left leg of the Lancelot heavy Warmech that had just missed them with its arm-mounted laser. As he steadied the cannon and adjusted to the new velocity, the Lancelot swung its torso around to bring an autocannon to bear on the pair’s Arsacid light GEV.

Eskandar took his shot. The sickly green of the particle beam turned another chunk of the Warmech’s plasteel armor into so much dust. “Three, left leg” he called over the squadron channel, knowing the two GEVs following the Sword of Saladin’s lead were working the same target. The Evening Star, the middle GEV of the trio, opened up with a pulse laser. Steam explosions from the Warmech’s hydraulics tore into the freshly exposed mechanisms of its leg. The Lancelot stumbled, but its right leg found purchase and it stayed up long enough for secondary hydraulics to engage and keep it in action. It let off a rattling burst of autocannon fire, but the stumble had disrupted its aim. As shells burst behind them, Darius brought the Sword of Saladin into a loose turn to take another pass.

Meanwhile, Balthazar, the third GEV, dumped two volleys of rocket-propelled minigrenades into the Lancelot’s left side. The spread of the weapon meant only four shots hit on the leg; two hit the side torso and the remaining pair burned off into empty space. The Warmech’s return fire finally took effect, as an autocannon burst ripped into the Evening Star’s plenum chamber. The GEV scraped against the ground, unable to keep the air pressure needed to keep it aloft.

As the particle cannon’s reload finished, Eskandar held fire, waiting to get an angle on the damaged leg again. The Evening Star’s gunner let off a desperate burst as the pilot opened the canopy, cursing the luck that had taken out his lift fans. The remaining GEVs circled the Warmech, giving Eskandar his target once again. “Four, left leg”, as the Warmech stumbled again, its polymer muscle-analogues cut. The hydraulics engaged, locking the leg, but the Lancelot was effectively immobilized. “Next hit should finish” called Balthazar’s gunner, his minigrenades already in flight. As they struck home, cracking the Warmech’s knee and starting its slow collapse, Darius’s voice crackled over the vox. “Next up, Mammoth tank, 10 o’clock, hold fire til we have rear.” Eskandar swung the gun around, shifted the focus of his targeting computer, ready for the mercenary squadron’s next engagement.

The GEV

“GEV” refers in military parlance of the 31st century to what is properly termed a light hovercraft*. Held aloft by lift fans, and maneuvered by a separate jet or fan propulsion system, the GEV is able to achieve high velocities in reasonably flat terrain with little need for roads or similar infrastructure. GEVs are powered by compact fusion generators. As a result, they are typically armed with energy weapons that take advantage of their high power generation without requiring additional weight for ammunition. Generally, GEVs have either a two-man crew with a pilot and a gunner, or a three-man crew with a pilot, commander, and gunner.

GEVs are typically employed as either reconnaissance or fast-attack craft. In either role, their speed over moderately rough ground gives them an advantage over traditional wheeled or tracked vehicles. Their ability to travel over water is essential as reconnaissance craft, allowing them to outflank enemies on an operational scale. As fast-attack craft, they typically carry heavier armaments than wheeled alternatives, which are usually hydrocarbon-powered and therefore unable to mount effective energy weapons.

As expensive and finicky vehicles without the prestige of a warmech, GEVs are rarely seen as part of a standard Lance. Some members of the higher nobility will field a GEV squadron in addition to their usual complement of ground vehicles and infantry. More often, GEVs are found as part of a mercenary unit, which provides both crews and maintenance staff for their vehicles. Ishtar, a water world on which mercenary naval warfare predominates, has a reputation for providing the best mercenary GEV units.


* Technically speaking, a ground effect vehicle is a winged vehicle which requires aerodynamic interactions with the ground to generate sufficient lift to keep it airborne, while a hovercraft uses an air chamber under the vehicle kept at high pressure to provide lift.

Hrungnir

The bluntside shovel-left hangar bustled as the city groaned to a halt. As the prince-regent clambered into his ancestral Warmech, the Cold of Iron, a pair of archaic Mammoth heavy tanks were being drained of fuel, their usual bio-diesel not energy-dense enough for the extended maneuvers that might be needed today. Across the hangar, a trio of Hummingbird GEVs were undergoing plenum chamber pressure checks as their three-man crews rushed out of the ready room. On the shovel-right middle gangway, the chief armorer watched as pages bolted the finishing touches onto the Aesir-class power armor of a squad of heavy infantry.

The regent’s squire stepped up to the Warmech’s cockpit, checking that the buckles were secure and straps fastened. At his nod, the cockpit began to close, sealing the regent into the hull. As the squire read through the pre-activation checklist, the regent flipped switches and checked dials, slowly bringing the noble machine to readiness. Finally, he lifted the cover from the primary activation switch, flicked it into active mode, and felt the hum of the great fusion generator lighting up beneath him. Meanwhile the GEV crews buttoned up their hatches and spun up the main drive fans, the Mammoth’s turbine generators came to screaming life, and the heavy infantry clambered down into their Goliathground effect APC. At last the hangar door began to open, sunlight streaming through the narrow crack. The regent thumbed the vox switch, bringing speakers crackling to life throughout the hangar and the rest of the bluntside military complex.

“Hrungnir expects that every man shall do his duty”