Techno-Wizard Elemental Mines:

Introduction:

The Texas Irregulars, a Techno-Wizard mercenary company, had been hired by the City of Tolkeen to stop a Coalition Armored unit that had destroyed several towns to the west of the city. The Irregulars was a fairly small company and was badly outnumbered by the Coalition units and was attempting an ambush to even the odds. Everything would have to go perfect in the ambush or the Coalition unit could overwhelm them. The ambush was set in the remains of a small town that had been wrecked in a previous battle. The mercenary company had set up a series of mines in the center of the ruins to hopefully catch and destroy most of the Coalition robots and armored vehicles. Instead of some form of autonomous, the mines were set up with a manual trigger, Because of that, an advanced scout would have to stand by to trigger the mines when the Coalition was within range. The manual triggering would allow the mines to be triggered with more precision than would be otherwise possible.

Aurelia Blade was the daughter of the commander of the Irregulars and her job was to trigger the mines at the right time. While young, she was trusted by all the members of the company and was very skilled at her job. She was a combat techno-wizard and had saved the company just a couple of weeks before. She was hiding in what looked like it had been a farmhouse before the Coalition had attacked the city. It was located a short distance from the town and would be outside the effects of the mines. The techno-wizard was wearing a mystic power armor and the armor perfectly blending with the blackened concrete she was hiding in and was close too invisible.

From her concealed position, Aurelia could hear the approach of the heavy units. As she watched, she saw four SAMAS power armors. She noted that all three were old style SAMAS. She had heard that the new SAMAS had suffered huge attrition and the old designs had been pressed back into front line service. Well, they were generally less powerful than the newer Coalition flying armors and this should work to their advantage.

As she waited, the large Coalition units came into view as well. The lead unit was a Scout Spider Skull Walker and was trailed by eight other giant robots and four armored personnel carriers. Among the large units, a number of humanoid figures walked slowly forward. She could see that air reconnaissance had been wrong. The unit was larger by about one quarter compared to what she had been told. In addition, the unit had dog pack members and skelebots among the human soldiers. The young techno-wizard was most concerned about the psi-hounds. Like her, the remainder of the company were hidden by magic. The other Irregulars were further away from the town than her but were vulnerable to the dog boys special senses as well. Well, Aurilla would know within the next ten minutes if her trap would work or not.

The Coalition unit had entered the ruins of the town but had stopped. The mutant dogs had moved forward and were looking at a spot on the ground. Aurelia knew that the dog boys were looking at where a mine had been buried and it was likely they were sensing magic coming from the mine. None of the other mines had been spotted and most of the Coalition troops and combat vehicles were within the effects of the buried mines. She had been hoping that the SAMAS would land but it did not look like they would cooperate. It was time to activate the mines before the Coalition units left or did something unexpected. She pressed the magical trigger to activate the mines.

At first all that could be heard was some minor rumbling. A few seconds later, the earth cracked open and eight rivers of lava flowed into the center of the town. The dog boys were among the nearest to one of the mines and were not in environmental body armor. As a result, they were the first to die but the others caught in the lava died quickly from being engulfed in the burning rock as well. Soon, even the robots and armored personnel carriers sunk under the lava. Only two Mark V Armored Personnel Carriers survived because they had remained back and had not been engulfed by the lava. A number of soldiers had also survived as well but all of the skelebots had been lost. The SAMAS were looking frantically for targets to attack and were spraying with their rail guns indiscriminately. The mercenaries broke cover and prepared to finish off the remaining Coalition troops.

Description:

Techno-Wizard Elemental Mines are created by the combined efforts of a Techno-Wizard and an Earth Warlock. There is only a handful of techno-wizards on Rifts Earth who know the secret magics needed to create the mines. As a result, the mines are very expensive and rare. When triggered, the elemental mine releases an Earth Elemental spell. The spell on the mine is treated to have been cast at the same level as the Earth Warlock who helped to create the mine in the first place. There are a variety of different mines available and there is one type of anti-personnel mine. The larger mines are mainly created to deal with robots and armored vehicles but are useful against large creatures as well. There are rumors of new mines being developed using water Elemental spells. These spells would be used in naval mines and possibly anti-vampire mines.

The Earth Elemental Mines appear similar to standard twentieth century Mines and the anti-personnel mines are much smaller than the anti vehicle mines. The mines are made from copper and are wrapped with silver wire. A variety of crystals, mostly quartz but included others as well, are inlayed into the mines. The mines can be detected by those individuals who can sense magic although often the mines are often hidden in natural magic rich sources such as ley lines.

The mines can be fitted with a variety of different triggers. Like some of the oldest mines, one of the most common triggers is simple weight. The mines can be completely buried and left in the path of the enemy forces. The mines activate when a certain amount of weight is set on the mine. Normally, the anti-personnel mines are set for around 100 lbs (45 kg) and anti-vehicle mines are set for around 1 ton (0.9 metric tons). The weights may be reset for different weight limits. Often, this might be done to prevent animals from triggering mines. A related type of mine but more complex is a mine that is triggered by identifying a target by images or specific sounds and activating when the target gets within a certain distance. The mines can record information about 10,000 different targets to differentiate between targets. These mines must have some sort of sensor above the ground and can often be spotted this way. Another trigger is a timer style trigger. The timers are rarely used in anti-personnel mines but the mines are still very useful. A mine with a timer might be buried under where an enemy plans to set up camp and be set to activate in the middle of the night. The one told in the story is a manual trigger and has advantages in some situations. It is hard to program computers for all possible situations and the mines use a sentient being judgement when to trigger the mine. The remote is magical and has a range of 1 mile (1.6 km) per level of the techno-wizard creating the mine.

Type of Mine	Level of Spell:	Type of Mine:	Weight:	Cost:
Quick Sand	Fourth	Anti-Personnel	10 lbs (4.5 kg)	15,000 Credits
Chasm	Fifth	Anti-Vehicle	80 lbs (36.3 kg)	250,000 Credits
River of Lava	Seventh	Anti-Vehicle	80 lbs (36.3 kg)	500,000 Credits
Earth Quake	Eighth	Anti-Vehicle	80 lbs (36.3 kg)	600,000 Credits
Magnetism	Eighth	Anti-Vehicle	80 lbs (36.3 kg)	400,000 Credits

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Writeup by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).

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