Cray
07/25/06 08:38 PM
68.200.109.191
|
Code:
Classic BattleTech Battle Armor Technical Readout VALIDATED . Type/Model: SAIS Tech/Era: Inner Sphere / 3067 / CBT Rules Chassis Type: Humanoid Weight Class: PA(L)/Exoskeleton (0 - 400 kg) Rules: Level 2, Standard design . Ground Speed: 32.4 km/h Armor Type: Standard . ==Overview:== Sirian Armored Infantry Suit (SAIS, pronounced "sez") was a concept to bring battle armor to the common infantryman. It was meant to be a cheap suit of armor with superior protection to the ballistic/ablative armor of "heavily armored" infantry, plus other "fringe benefits," like integral NBC protection and outright vacuum/underwater life support, enhanced resistance to anti-personnel weaponry (2 points of damage from an MG, not 2d6), reduced fatigue, increased strength to carry more ammo, etc. . All the possible benefits made the concept look good, especially when price estimates indicated that suits for under 200K per soldier were possible (and the SAIS ended up at 130,500CB...plus 150,000CB per trooper in training cost). However, the SAIS project nearly failed in the almost rabid arguments between PA(L) and Light Battle Armor camps. . A PA(L) trooper could survive an MG or SRM hit, nothing more. A small laser, LRM salvo, artillery blast - all these would wipe out a trooper. A light battle armor, on the other hand, could carry enough armor to survive such onslaughts and even medium battlefield weaponry like medium lasers and mid-caliber ACs. Further, the LBA would be hardly more expensive than the PA(L). . On the flip side, a PA(L) might come in around 200-300kg, while the LBA would approach 3/4 of a ton. There were so many places where 600 to 750kg armored "behemoths" would have trouble - residential floors couldn't handle such giants (especially in the many backward areas of Sirius and Procyon, where upper floors were nothing more than light wood), civilian vehicles might be overburdened with 1 LBA passenger, etc. PA(L)s were close enough to human scale not to cause such problems. . The decision was made on grounds that made the LBA camp VERY unhappy, unhappy enough to rant to the media about "dirty politics". The theory was that an LBA would be too much like a SABA or SAMAS. Too much of a "real" battle armor, in other words. The PA(L)s were just "enhanced body armor." This logic infuriated the LBA camp. The LBA SAIS would be nothing like the feature-stuffed SABA and SAMAS - it would be a completely "bare bones" battle armor. . ==Capabilities:== The SAIS is a PA(L) meant to extend the life of the average infantryman. The SAIS has no integral weapons and only "basic" thermal, low light, and audio sensors - still a step up from what the typical Sirian Holds infantryman had before. Its armor (2 points) will stop light vehicular weaponry only, but it does an excellent job of protecting the wearer from personal weaponry, guerilla car bombs and suicide bombs, etc. Since it was meant for the average infantryman (a goal that didn't work out), the SAIS has a good ground speed but no integral jump capacity. The SAIS also has enough unused kilograms to fit extra equipment (parafoils, jump jets, extra power packs, etc.) for more skilled users. . SAIS users are usually equipped with heavy personal weapons and more ammo and supplies than a normal infantryman can carry. In practice, the goal of giving average Sirian infantryman SAISs didn't work out. A degree of intelligence and technical training were still required that limited the SAIS to about 25% of Sirian infantry units, but the SAIS remains vastly more common than the SABA and SAMAS. Despite being a cut above the average infantryman, a normal SAIS user is unskilled with several "normal" battle armor abilities. Few receive the advanced training to use jump jets, and almost none are trained for orbital drops. . Normal weaponry for SAIS troopers are blazers, large caliber assault rifles, and pulse laser rifles. The Sirian military has developed a variety of "light fragmentation" ammos and grenades that spew light, low-penetration shrapnel. While literally murderous against lightly armored or unarmored human threats, the shrapnel has negligible effect against SAIS troopers (or heavier battle armors). This enables SAIS troopers to throw grenades into a melee with fellow troopers without worrying for harming their friends. . ==Battle History:== In an ironic reversal of the Gyrn Rebellion of 3057 (see SAMAS Battle armor thread), it was Procyon that suffered a pro-WoB uprising in 3070 that presaged WoB's invasion of the Sirian Holds. Continuing the irony, it was troops from Sirius who arrived to save the day. Procyon's defenses had been thoroughly riddled with rebel sympathizers, so Procyon's local troops had been unable to surprise or suppress the pro-WoB rebels. The Sirian training facilities for the new SAIS units had been on a relatively isolated island continent and operational security had been tight enough that what leaks occurred (and there were leaks: thousands of normal soldiers were involved in the training) did not reach the Procyon rebels. . Two SAIS divisions landed in the most rebellious provinces and were able to quickly shut down the terrorist actions. Car bombs and suicide bombers only hurt civilians, not SAIS troopers, and SAIS troopers could conduct door-to-door searches with little fear of anti-personnel mines or farmers' hunting rifles. They were also numerous enough to patrol a large area. The oft-understated Procyon contribution to ending the rebellion cannot be ignored, however. The Procyon media quickly and convincingly portrayed the WoB sympathizers as tools of, well, WoB, who were killing billions in the Inner Sphere with nuclear weapons. WoB, the media said, did not have the Sirian Holds' best interests in its heart. It wanted to reverse all the decades of painstaking progress Procyon and Sirius had made since the 3020s (and it was accepted by most Holds' citizens that progress was good; therefore, WoB was bad). . ==Variants:== SAIS troopers are frequently given heavier weaponry - their armor is rated for another 165kg of equipment. Extra power packs are standard for field deployments, because they allow a trooper to "recharge" as fast as the battery pack can be swapped for a fresh one from their IFV. (The Holds' use of fusion-powered vehicles makes laser weapons, especially pulse laser weapons, popular with the troops.) . A 75kg jump pack is available and used by about 1 in 6 SAIS companies. These SAIS units have 3MP jumping capacity. A 25kg jump pack is available for anti-mech and urban SAIS units. A 30-meter jump capacity isn't much on the open battlefield, but it's wonderful for getting into the upper floors of buildings quickly. . ------------------------------------------------------------------ Type/Model: SAIS Equipment: Slots Mass Chassis Type: PA(L) Class Humanoid 0 80 Motive System: Ground Movement (3 MP) 0 50 Armor Type: 2 Points Standard 0 100 . Manipulators: Left Arm: Basic Manipulator 0 0 Right Arm: Basic Manipulator 0 0 . Weapons and Equipment Loc Shots Slots Mass ------------------------------------------------------------------ Anti-Personnel Weapon Mount RA 1 5 (Anti-Personnel Weapon Space) RA 0 0 ------------------------------------------------------------------ TOTALS: 1 235 Slots & Mass Left: 5 165 . Calculated Factors: Total Cost: 280,500 C-Bills, Including Trooper Training Costs of 150,000 C-bills Battle Value: 6 (24 for 4) Weapon Value: 2 (Ratio=.33) Cost per BV: 21,750.0 (w/o Trooper Training costs) Damage Factors: SRDmg = 0 MRDmg = 0 LRDmg = 0 Mechanized: Can travel on OmniMechs and OmniVehicles Attacks: Can perform Swarm and Leg attacks BattleForce2: Class: IB MP: 3 Armor/Structure: 1 / 0 Damage PB/M/L: -/-/- Overheat: 0 Point Value: 0 Specials: mec, car4 . CBT:RPG Data: Armor Value (M/B/E/X): 4/5/6/5 Coverage: Full IR: 0, ECM: 0, Camo: 0 Melee AP: 1, Target Size Modifier: 0 Movement Modifiers: Walking: +4, Running: +8, Sprinting: +12 Attribute Modifiers: STR: 0, DEX: -1, RFL: 0 Equipment Rating: E/E/E . Created by HeavyMetal Battle Armor
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
|