Morikuchi Combat Armor Suit
The CAS, manufactured initially by the Eurasian Alliance and then by the combined Earth Alliance, would make a turning point in the conflict between the Terrans and the Colonials
Full Item Description
The Morikuchi Combat Armor Suit is a standardized suit of powered armor. Unlike the powered armor portrayed in mecha anime, these suits do not have bulky shoulderpads, learing helmets, chainsaws, or other bizarre weaponry. The entire suits masses 60 kilos, most of that weight being the ultra-light battery, and armor plating. The monocrystallized steel-molybdem plate can withstand all small arms fire and even some medium range guns at range. The suit has fitting points for a variety of combat components that allow the CAS to be assigned to an assortment of roles.
We were able to secure Earth, and the colonies and hab's around it too. That cheesed the colonials off real bad, so they pushed us back hard. Their ships were kinda better than ours, but our's were bigger, and more importantly we had more of ours than they had of theirs. But the problem is that a spaceship can't take and hold a colony, or secure a city. It's can blast one to bits, but it takes tanks and boots on the ground to secure those places. We didn't do very good there. Our tanks couldn't go toe to toe with theirs, not unless we outnumbered 'em five or six to one. We did okay, but it was rare we hit those numbers. We needed something better than a slab sided tank, we needed something smaller, harder to hit. Then those crazy Japs pulled it off. They were tinkering with this stuff for about two centuries, and BAM! We had a battalion of the damned things. It was about to get dangerous
Corporal Terrance Zidane, 12th Terran Space Marine
History
In light of failures to take Colonial planetside installations on the Moon, Mars, and a horrific disaster on Ganymede, a new weapon system was needed. Tanks and other conventional vehicles, sealed for extreme enviroments faired poorly. One solid hit could compromise a hull and expose a crew to lethal conditions. Crews who tried to run their tanks in pressure suits were too cramped to work efficiently and were even more likely to be killed by a Colonial tank droid, or some other Colonial high tech weapon.
The answer came from Japan, which had been working towards mecha and robotics since the mid 20th century, and by the 23rd, they had made some significant progress. The Combat Armor Suit was the first solid design to come from decades upon decades of tinkering and experimenting. Armored enough to survive grenades, small arms fire, and carry it's own power pack and heavier weapony it was a miniature walking Armored fighting vehicle.
The initial shipment of a battalion worth of Morikuchi CAS suits was sent to the French 12th Terran Space Marines. Under the command of Commander Pascale Blaise, the armored marines were able to storm the Colonial observation post on the Moon and eliminate the anti-ship lasers as well as the armor contingent that held the base against several conventional attacks. Losses in the battle, however, remain classified.
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Standard Tactical Package
The standard armament for the Morikuchi CAS is an over-under American made M-32 heavy combat weapon system. The weapon has a top mounted semi-automatic 8.88mm rifle that can fire a variety of rounds that are effective against light body armor and thin skinned vehicles such as trucks and automobiles. Under the rifle is a solid state optical laser that fires 3 second bursts of intense energy. The suit has a secondary battery beneath the suit power pack that is for the laser, but in extreme circumstances, the power feeds can be switched, and the suit can use the laser pack, and the laser can use the suit pack as needed.
I remember the sound of bullets whinging off the chestplate. Even in shockplate I would have been in the hospital for a month after surviving a hail of rounds like that. The rebels screamed and charged, their rifles chattering and grenades going off like the bass line in a rap song. Our guns responded, we didn't even try to dodge their shots. number seven went down, lucky shot to the faceplate, but on the other side, the hail of heavy rifle rounds and cutting lasers had turned their charge into a charnel house of wailing injured and silent dead. We advanced, the Colonial sympathizers were wiped out by the end of the day, and by the end of the month the Taiwan Rebellion was over.
Lt. John Leeds, 2nd Federation Armored Infantry
Close Combat Package
Also called the Assault Suit, the CCP is some of the nastiest weaponry placed on a CAS, short of the heavy weapons suits. The main weapon of the CCP is a multi-role gun.
The 20mm gun has minimal range and isnt horribly accurate but the standard rounds for the gun include:
Hellfire - Incendiary round similar to the Dragonsbreath round, the Hellfire produces a gout of flame roughly 8 meters long for a very shory burst. At point blank range, this round can cut through soft metals, melt conventional doors, and is instantly lethal with what CCP marines call 5th degree burns. Repeated firing of Hellfire rounds does quickly compromise the battel of the gun.
Beehive - A flechette round packed with 1200 steel needles 3 inches long, a beehive round can clear a room in a heartbeat. The downside to the weapon is that conventional flak jackets and helmets can stop the round, as can a few inches of wood or a quarter inch of metal. These rounds are most often used in space combat as they can shred a pressure suit, but leave a spaceship or habitat hull intact.
Standard Scattershot - A 20mm conventional shotgun shell. Firing a hail of small pellets, this weapon is deadly at short range and messy as well. Like the flechette, this round is also used in space boarding action and confined combat.
Flashbang - a 20mm flashbang grenade that stuns opponents with a bright flash of light and a loud concussive bang, rarely lethal.
Conventional Grenade - the most common round used in the gun, the conventional 20mm grenade has a decent explosive range, and damage, and fired in a barrage, anything short of a tank is usually killed, gutted, quartered and cleaned.
The CCP also has a secondary melee weapon. Originally the suit did not carry anything in the off hand but some marines made it habit enough that standardized equipment was made to accomodate the strength of the suit. THe most common improvised implements were machine shop made boarding axes, large sledge hammers, or outright clubs. The production CCP comes with a short handled lucern hammer that is about six times heavier than the medieval variant. A trooper can usually crack open a tank driver hatch or other thin armor plate with this weapon and fire his weapon into the breached vehicle.
Heavy Weapons Package
Eventually lumped into one package, the Heavy Weapons Systems were originally each individualized. After a few years of fidgiting around with mismatched parts, the model 21 Morikuchi introduced a uniform set-up for mounting heavy weapons.
Things were getting pretty hairy, the Colonials had us pinned down, there was railgun fire all over the place. The last guy to poke his head up lost the back of his skill to a sniper. I had heard that the Space Marines were coming to back us ground pounders up, and for the first time, I wasn't pissed at them stealing our thunder and glory. We were getting cut to pieces when they finally showed up. Their APCs came in like the cavalry in a holowestern. They hit the berms we were taking cover behind, I still remember the name plate of the trooper who dug in next to me. I couldn't see his face, but I could read LT. DAVIDOWITZ, he had a Polish flag under his Atlantic Federation logo. They sent in the Poles, this was more serious than even I suspected. He hefted the autocannon he was carrying, a beast of a 40mm, belt fed monster. Then they were up and over, I still remember the dull throb of that big gun as he laid down heavy fire. The rest of them went over. Another bloke, he had some sort of unholy energy weapon that made the air howl and 30 feet away I felt the heatwash off of it.
The most common Heavy Weapon system is a 40mm smoothbore cannon. The weapon fires a relatively short range high explosive round, but can fire flare rounds, armor-defeating rounds, or in ugly ugly situations, a meter long harpoon.
The hardpoint on the suit can accomodate most infantry support heavy lasers, man portable plasma cannons, or flame throwers.
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? Responses (6)
Solid choices make for a solid fighting object... It seems like it could be a good filler piece, the 'standard' of the year that the PCs will want to vary from. I would have made slightly different choices, but they're minor things.
Indeed, this is the meat and bones version of a combat suit; the description is good as well. I especially like the melee weapons bit.
Darn, Echo beat me to it. The thought of a high-tech armored fighter breaking something apart with a mace or equivalent, is highly amusing (and still perfectly in tune). Well worked out.
Nice enough take on battle armor. It could be fun make some stats for these things to use in one of our game systems.
Is this a back story you just made up for these suits?
Pretty much yes, battle armor is battle armor, but give it some good backstory and make the readers interested.
Great treatment here. Lots of nice details!