AS-322 'Little Bastard' antisubmarine drone

Chassis: Small Sea Sled
Body: 1
CF: 2 (2 used)
Handling: 1
Armor: 10
Autonav/Pilot: --/4
Sensor/Sonar: 1/1
Max Depth: 1,600
Seating: 1m
Design Points: 335
Mark-Up Factor: 1

Power Plant: Battery
Load: 250 (104.5 used)
Speed: 150
Acceleration: 11
Signature: 10/10
Power Factor: 50
Economy Rating: 5 km/PF
Design Points: 795

Other:
Fin Drive
Special Machinery (limpet system, 0.5 CF)
Remote Micro-Turret w/ Rating 2 Gunnery Recoil Adjusters, Firearm Conversion Kit
Mounting FN-AAL Gyrojet Pistol: mode SA, damage 12M (12S underwater). Heavy pistol ranges underwater, shotgun ranges on land.
100 rounds Gyrojet-Plus ammunition: anti-vehicular
Autosoft Interpretation System
Electronics port with attatched underwater-modded Quad Speakers and miniature hydraulic ram
Rating 2 Sharpshooter Autosoft
Rating 2 Clearsight Autosoft

342,300 nuyen

The AS-322 is one of the most maddening inventions in the history of submarine warfare. It is a logical extension of the widespread practise of 'sonar lashing', or panicking an unsuspecting sub crew by making their hull resonate with the powerful 'pings' of active sonar. Able to be loaded into a standard torpedo tube, the 'Little Bastard' seeks out an enemy submarine and clamps onto it with an oversized suction cup that quickly fills with waterproof adhesive: then, it deploys its speakers and hydraulic ram flush to the enemy's hull. It then proceeds to blast, at top volume, a nigh-endless recording loudly audible inside the enemy craft's hull: disturbingly off-tune music, the soundtracks to snuff films, the rantings of psychotic madmen, microphone feedback, suicide notes, recordings taken from hospital burn wards... It punctuates this auditory assualt with constant, arrythmic and startlingly loud banging on the hull with its hydraulic ram, occasionally firing off a round from its gyrojet weapon into the hull to really scare the hell out of the sub's crew. Crews with an AS-322 attatched find it impossible to sleep or rest, and the racket it makes lights the attatched submarine up like a Christmas tree for anyone using passive sonar. Its thick armor, low, flat profile, and aggressive use of its gyrojet weapon make it extremely difficult to remove: before the craft runs out of power, it's nearly impossible to get off even in dry dock. Only once it runs out of battery power (a contingency that results in the release of all of its remaining gyrojet ammunition into the attatched sub, as well as any nearby soft targets it can find) is it safe to remove, and even then it needs to be sawed or blowtorched off the ship's hull.

Interesting, but I'm failing to see a use for this that an ordinary torpedo wouldn't serve better.

~J

Harassment, the same as sonar lashing. Demoralization. Remove the pistol on this thing and it wouldn't even be an act of war.
It gives submarines an intermediate-lethality option.

I'm guessing it'd be used in special cases where the submarine and/or its inhabitants would rather be captured alive, or simply for getting a sub to go away. It's an interesting concept, although I wonder if materials that make subs more difficult to detect by sonar (like plastic/rubber covered hulls that diffuse/whatever sound waves) wouldn't make this ineffective against the military subs of the 2070s.

It'd still light it up on sonar.

I imagine it could be useful if you wanted to torpedo a cruise ship without sinking it. Also if you you could set the bastards as fire and forget mines that ignore friendly subs.

If there's some kind of luxury underwater cruise ship operating in 2060 (possible: after all, there's an orbital resort), attatching this to it could be the baisis for a shadowrun.

Well, then they have bigger problems. A torp-hit sub still isn't stealthy, even if it survives.

OR, since almost all subs area at least double hulled just fill the portion of the inner hull with water and usa a plasma cutter to take off the small section of the hull with the drone on it.

OR pull an anime move and scrape the bottom with the afflicted section of the sub and scrape it off.

turn it into a sub-launched mine that floats in one spot under neutral bouyancy. or anchors itself to whatever.

the only real god way to get rid of this thing would be to scrape it off like a lamprey against a rock. which is why it should be desighned to attach itself aft of the conning tower, or some other vital protrusion.

And part of why it has 10 points of armor. You'd really have to *scrape*, maybe even damage something before you get it off.

Ha. This is pretty funny. I guess it falls into the prank category of weapons. Maybe useful for shadowrunners who want to distract/annoy a corp sub without killing the crew?

Well think about it, its a disabling weapon. Once you remove stealth from a sub its a pretty soft target.

Add the possibility of some pretty substantial pyc. warfare, and its a pretty valid concept. But consider making it bore into the hull insted of glueing it self down. Same idea, hearing someone grinding into the pressure hull of a sub must be pretty scary.

*edit*
Oh, and wait, its wicked steep for that cause. Plus the gyrojet is clip fed, so 100 rounds of ammo wont work.