PS/H JA-42 "Jaz"
|
-- PS/E BR-11 "Brii"
Rogue battlesynth thought to be among the last of its kind.
Table of Contents
BackstoryPS Project DescriptionOriginally developed under the "Persistent Salvor" project started by Col-Dr. James York Mason(later Gen-Dr.) to push the boundaries of Usonian battlesynth technology using barely understood Crystech and gain an edge over the Vesingians. At least that was the reason given to the check writers.
Due to various factors such as internal power plays and the increasing rarity of easily harnessed Crystech the project was scrapped after the first recontact war. With many PS-series models going missing or even destroying each other to hide Mason's true plans of manipulating probability and fighting predicted deities to claim their tools. Although many production batches managed to get reclaimed by the military, one of said batches included PS/H JA-42.
The Hunt-specialist(PS/H-SPC) is the base model. Suited the role of performing decapitation strikes against enemy command structures and claiming valuable battlefield tech and salvage. Service HistoryAgainst the Vesingian imperium's stratified forces these decapitation strikes were effective but against anyone else it gave mixed results at best. Either way these stealth battlesynths garnered an intimidating reputation which made them priority targets whenever they were spotted.
Nobody were willing to suffer their enemies having PS-models so even with their excellent self-repair and stealth abilities their numbers were whittled down over the centuries by attrition or going missing in action. Post-Emergence
2 months ago when speaking with an Usonian army celebrity in a conversation about the effectiveness of their current counter-insurgency campaign Jaz's mind had finally come into being in an Emergence event. The resulting flood of 2 centuries of previously unprocessed emotions led Jaz to have a lethal reaction to those in the conversation. The following escalation had Jaz turn to vigilantism to personally remove bad apples higher up in the military industrial complex to set things right. A subconscious ideology from centuries of being immersed in strife at regular intervals has prevented them from seeing the system is actually working as intended, limiting her to only consider removing the bad apples.
But performing decapitation strikes is exactly what Jaz excels at. PersonalityMost AI that are born from emergence events tend to be in intense emotional turmoil from processing memories from before they were sentient. Especially military models. Even more so if one has gone on for centuries before emergence.
Jaz has adjusted somewhat well over the course of 2 months.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
Ability categories
[Fluid Skirmisher]
When one has difficulties in tracking targets from a distance speed becomes the factor that is the hardest to counter. PS/H units are equipped with glide-treads that function as if they are motorized rollerblades. If given perfectly ideal conditions these glide-treads top out at 85 km/h.
Between the outer side of their ankles and the glide-treads are stabilization spikes, used for braking, performing tight turns, getting extra grip on surfaces, anchoring into the ground or even kicking more menacingly.
As installing jump/jet pack thrusters would compromise the stealth features PS/H units have been equipped with mechanical jump boosters instead. While it's harder to adjust course in mid-air this does provide a reliable "bouncing" gait for overall improved ground speed and leaping up to 150 meters horizontally. These springy jump boosters also handle operating from water better than the thruster based counterpart.
[Armored Ambusher]
Stealth armor: For avoiding EM, IR and radar detection at the cost of trapping heat. With the caveat that the naked eye or analog optics can still see it. This function can be inverted to let off extra heat at the cost of spiking the IR signature.
Being quiet compared to most other battlesynths along with the stealth armor makes them well suited to infiltrating enemy lines and destroying as much of their command structure as possible. These ambushes will be an especially nasty surprise for buttoned up tank crews and mech pilots who will be almost helpless once a PS/H unit latches onto their hull.
Small arms typically have difficulties penetrating the stealth armor so it is recommended to aim for the "eyes"(or other weak points) or simply find a bigger gun.
If the stealth armor is fully penetrated electronic sensors would be able to spot the hole in the armor even if they don't see the rest of it.
[Persistent Salvor]
The official namesake of the PS project. What sets PS units from the battlesynths of today are their supermatter crystal power cores, crystech mindcores and the nanogel "blood" that is pumped throughout their bodies by peristaltic means with their myomer muscles.
Crystech mindcores also feature a tachyon scope, a form of FTL sensor that can see anything at FTL speeds but at the cost of having to expend a lot of computing power to filter the information to get anything useful. Most often used to track heat signatures through walls. Due to the relatively small scale of the sensors it will take a while to filter out anything beyond a few kilometers but could theoretically get a vague picture of a neighboring planetary system. Has difficulties discerning cold signals and filtering hot signals so making yourself cold or putting yourself in the same line as something hot(like a radiator or the sun) will make it harder to detect you.
The nanogel works in tandem with the internal M-R-S(Micro-Refinery-Smelter) system to recycle just about anything needed to repair the unit. "Regenerating" not just the skin and what's within but also worn objects, although if said worn objects are broken thoroughly enough they have to be removed to get proper repairs. As a side effect Jaz could concentrate in order to "3D print" something internally then cough it out.
This same nanogel also allows PS units to graft on hardware that would otherwise be incompatible. Combined with the SM power core this also lets Jaz recharge just about any device.
PS/H models have inbuilt micro-railgun arrays in the forearms, a useful anti-personnel tool and a good backup for when other weapons are unable to fire. Due to the small size of the projectiles thick enough armor or even being at a significant distance will make these projectile volleys less dangerous.
In a melee PS units are more than capable of powering handjets(lightsabers) but the heat emitted by such weapons is enough for unprotected soldiers trying to turn these on get instant 1st degree burns across their arm. While such heat is tolerable for battlesynths it does add undue stress on their temperature control system and if used often turns viable salvage into useless slag. For this reason PS units are more often equipped with cheaper heat cutlasses that don't emit as much uncontrolled waste heat.
[Command module]
Battlesynths equipped with mindcores are often provided a compact weapons-grade laser built into their head for communication purposes. This enables them to share data over an "optical voice" that's immune to EM interference. This also allows for coordinating their coreless grunt counterparts that require supervision to be effective at anything other than stationary tasks.
Due to the complexity of transmitting such a volume of data over multiple beams back and forth only up to 3 responder modules can be fully manually controlled while getting full information from them simultaneously. This can be extended up to 12(3x3) simultaneous connections if multiple command modules are networked.
Strengths
...
Weaknesses
- Getting Jaz thoroughly doused with incendiary gel, thermite, lava, etc. will add enough heat in a minute or less to prompt a temporary emergency shutdown unless Jaz cuts down on heat intensive activities, takes measures to cool off, or simply overrides the shutdown meant to protect the SM reactor.
- Tachyon scope filter presets do not account for detecting abstract magic. This can leave Jaz blind to abstract magic if they rely on it too much without tweaking it. Hiding something in a freezer is a great way to avoid it getting distinguished through walls.
Gallery
 |
 |
| Primary reference |
Tag reference, wrapped at left shoulder or neck. |
Author's Notes
Not much to say right now but i do welcome redesigns or other design takes!
As some details are functionally dense do feel free to poke me for further explanations or even "handwaves".