USA-G15 Mars Power Armor:


While the Glitter Boy PA suit proved to be a highly successful model, the US Army realized that it also had several short-comings as well, mainly in it's lack of speed that enabled smaller, faster, suits of PA to out-flank it, and it's need to anchor itself before firing it's main gun, forcing it to become a stationary target, and thus far easier to hit. It was also realized that while the Glitter Boy excelled in open-field warfare, it was equally horrible in urban settings where it's size and the power of it's main gun became more of a liability than an asset.


At the same time, the SPECWAR community was looking into producing a lighter, faster unit that was better suited for the wide variety of combat situations that they routinely dealt with. In particular the U.S. Army Rangers and the anti-terrorist units of Delta Force where interested in a light mobile suit that was capable of the fast paced, hi tempo warfare practiced by those units. So the US Army began a design competition for a PA suit more suited to urban combat, as well as being capable of guarding the flanks of GB squads to support their advance. The SAMAS suit was briefly considered but while certainly capable of operating in an urban environment, it was not well suited for fighting inside of buildings where it's wings would interfere with it's maneuverability, and being flight capable was not really seen as being a necessity for SPECWAR units. The other suit that the was submitted was the MARS PA which used the same armor as the GB, but was considerably faster, had a more well rounded weapons load out, and was much better suited to urban warfare than the GB.


The MARS PA suit was designed from the ground up as an urban fighter, however it is also a capable unit in open field warfare. The main weapon of the MARS suit is a 12-mm rotary barreled rail cannon that with it's selective fire-capability, and long range makes for a potent weapon. The suit also had a small mini-missile launcher mounted on the left shoulder for anti-aircraft use, as well as giving it a potent long range punch against other PA units, and a variety of anti-personnel weapons were mounted on the forearm of the suit. While the Army was more than pleased with the suit, only a few units had been issued the suit at the time of the Coming of the Rifts as production delays and cost overruns had substantially delayed it's production until only a year before the end.


Model Type: USA-G15
Class: Mobile Armored Suit
Crew: One


M.D.C. by Location:

[1] Head:100
Arms (2):150 each
Legs (2):200 each
12-mm Rail Cannon:200
Shoulder Mini-Missile Launcher:75
Forearm Weapon Pods (2):50 each
[2] Main Body:480
Reinforced Pilot’s Compartment:100


Notes:
[1] Destroying the head of the power armor will eliminate all forms of optical enhancements and sensory systems. The pilot is forced to rely on his own human vision and senses. Furthermore, all power armor Combat bonuses to strike, parry, and dodge are lost! Note: The head is a small and difficult target to hit, shielded by an exhaust tube, wings, and shoulder plating. Consequently, it can only be hit when a character makes a called shot and even then the attacker is - 4 to strike.
[2] Depleting the M.D.C. of the main body will shut the armor down completely, making it useless.


Speed:
Running: 120 mph (192 kph) maximum speed. Note that running does tire out the operator, but only at 10% of normal fatigue rate due to the exo-skeleton.
Leaping: The MARS unit can leap up to 25 feet (7.8 meters) high un-assisted by the jet thrusters, a thruster assisted leap can propel the unit up to 100 feet (31.25 meters) high, or 200 feet (62.5 meters) across.
Flying: The MARS unit is not capable of sustained flight, however, the jet thrusters do give the unit a limited flight capability. The jet thrusters can propel the unit to a maximum altitude of 200 feet (62.5 meters) and have a maximum speed of 60 mph (96 kph), however flight can only be maintained for 2 minutes maximum before the thrusters become too hot and emergency shut down occurs.


Statistics:
Height: 9 feet (2.8 meters)
Width: 4 feet, 6 inches (1.4 meters)
Length: 4 feet, 3 inches (1.3 meters)
Weight: 715 lbs. (324.3 kg) fully loaded
Physical Strength: Equal to a P.S. 40
Cargo: None
Power System: Nuclear, average energy life is 15 years.
Black Market Cost: Not normally available on the Black Market, but they would pay up to 4-6 million for a fully loaded version of the armor.


WEAPON SYSTEMS:

  1. 12-mm Rail Cannon: This is the main weapon system for the MARS PA suit, consisting of a 3 barreled rotary assault cannon firing 12-mm High Explosive Armor Piercing rounds for use against heavily armored targets, or can also use flachette rounds for anti-personnel and urban style combat. The suit's operator can switch between ammo types with a simple command, enabling him to choose the best round for the current target.
    Weight: 140 lbs. (63.5 kg)
    Maximum Effective Range: 6,000 feet (1,828 meters) with HEAP rounds, 2,000 feet (609.6 meters) with flachette rounds.
    Mega-Damage: As per Ammunition type.
      HEAP Rounds: 6D6 for a single round, 1D6x10+10 for a 6 round short burst, or 2D6x10+20 for a 20 round medium burst.
      Flachette Rounds: 4D6 (1 foot radius) for a single round, 1D4x10 (3 foot radius) for a 6 round burst, or 2D4x10+10 (6 foot radius) for a 20 round medium burst.
    Rate of Fire: Standard, use machine gun rules for long bursts, or shooting wild.
    Payload: 1000 round ammo drum for each type of ammunition. One spare drum can be carried hooked to the back of the unit, requires 3 rounds to replace a drum by another PA suit.
    Note: Flachette rounds are specifically designed to be used against lightly armored targets and lack the penetration power to adequately engage power armored units, armored vehicles, or structures. Half all damage done against these units while using flachette rounds.
  2. Mini-Missile Launcher: Mounted on the left shoulder of the MARS suit is a mini-missile launcher for use against armored targets, bunkers, and other PA suits, or too rapidly disperse large infantry formations.
    Maximum Effective Range: As per short range missile type (See revised bomb and missile tables for details.)
    Mega Damage: As per short range missile type (See revised bomb and missile tables for details.)
    Rate of Fire: Can fire missiles one at a time or in volleys of two (2) or four (4) missiles.
    Payload: 8 mini-missiles.
  3. Forearm Weapon Pod: Mounted on the left fore-arm unit is a light pulse laser and a grenade launcher for use against infantry units or as a fast response weapon.
    1. Pulse laser: Intended to be used as a light anti-personnel weapon or in situations where the main gun cannot be used for fear of killing bystanders.
      Maximum Effective Range: 500 feet (152.4 meters)
      Mega-Damage: 2D6 for a single pulse, 6D6 for a triple pulse.
      Rate of Fire:Equal to the pilots combined hand to hand (usually 5 or 6).
      Payload: Unlimited (Draws Power off the main engines).
    2. Grenade Launcher:
      Maximum Effective Range: 1500 feet (457.2 meters)
      Mega-Damage: As per grenade, typically uses either plasma, or heavy fragmentation for heavy combat and flash-bang, or concussion for anti-terrorist operations.
        Plasma: 5D6 (12 foot blast radius), 1D6x10 (30 foot blast radius ) for a 4 round burst.
        Heavy Fragmentation: 4D6 (20 foot radius ), 1D4x10 (40 foot radius) for a 4 round burst.
        Flash-Bang: These grenades make a loud exploding boom, as well as a bright flash of light and smoke, stunning and blinding everyone within a 20' (6.2 meter) radius. Victims are at -8 to strike, parry, and dodge, -1 on initiative, and lose one attack for the next 1-4 melee rounds (15-60 seconds) per grenade fired.
        Concussion Grenades: Designed to knock down and stun targets these do 1D4 Mega-Damage in a 30' (9.1 meters) blast radius with a 1-88% chance of knocking down (lose one melee attack and initiative) and a 1-64% chance of stunning (-10 to strike parry, and dodge, attacks last, and loses half of his attacks/actions and speed for 1D4 melee rounds ) everyone in it's blast radius. Check for knockdown, and stun effect for each grenade fired for burst attacks, ie, a 4 round burst would require 4 checks for each, penalties are cumulative for each grenade.
        Note: Flash-bang and concussion grenades where often used together, a burst would typically fire 2 of each type in staggered fire, ie. one flash-bang, one concussion, one flash-bang, etc. to maximize the effects of both types on the targets.
      Rate of Fire: Single shot or 4 rounds burst.
      Payload: 16 rounds in a rotary magazine, a spare magazine is carried in a compartment in each leg. Takes 2 rounds to reload.
  4. Hand-to-Hand Combat: Rather than use a weapon, Pilot can engage in Mega-Damage hand to hand combat. See Power Armor Combat Training in Robot Combat section of Rifts. All abilities are the same as those on page 45 of Rifts except the armor has a +2 M.D. bonus to damage with all hand to hand attacks. (bonuses for high prowess and Power Armor Combat skills still get added in).


Special Equipment::



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[ Beyond the Supernatural®, Heroes Unlimited®, Nightbane®, Ninjas & Superspies®, Palladium Fantasy®, and Rifts® are registered trademarks owned by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc. ]


Drawing by Talis D. Merrill (taalismn@pop.tiac.net).


Initial Writeup by David Meyer (meyerd6@earthlink.net).

Reformatting and revisions by Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).


Copyright © 2002 & 2003, David Meyer & Kitsune. All rights reserved.


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