Looks like I'm back from my little exile folks. Its not a big one, but someone asked for this in another thread.

Ares Borealis Gunship

The Ares Borealis Gunship is a heavily-armed ground-attack aircraft outfitted with the one of the largest laser weapons known to man. With the extra advantage of height the Mercury Ship Laser gets a substantial boost to range (the limiting factor being the horizon.)

It is also outfitted with several other weapons systems; primarily the four Ares Helmdall missile drones. These drones add to the precise nature of the Borealis attacks and allow for surgical removal of enemy combatants or assets.

The Borealis has a crew of 8:
3 Pilots/Riggers (2 on, one off)
2 Electronic Warfare/Hacker Specialist (1 on, 1 off)
3 Gunners (2 on, 1 off)

Total Cost: 5.8 Million

Stats:
Hand: -1
Accel: 35/120
Speed: 500
Pilot: 3
Body: 30
Armor: 15
Sensors: 5
Device Rating: Special See Below
Avail: 30F

Std. Upgrades:
Life Support 2
ECM 6
Lock-On Countermeasure
Missile Defense System
Signature Masking 2
8 Sleeping quarters equal to a coffin hotel

Weapons:
1 Heavy Turret (Winter Systems Mercury Ship Laser; Belly)
2 Large Turrets (Ares Vigorous Assault Cannons; Side mounted)
4 Small Drone Racks (Ares Helmdall)
4 Ares MP-LMG (2 side turrets, 2 rear turrets)
2 Fleche Hail Barrage Rocket Launchers

(Below thanks to Sabs)
Device Rating: Special

This Vehicle/Weapon system is outfitted with the latest in Computing Technology.
It sports a Ares 7 Nexus that is skinlinked to the entire airship.
Response: 7
Signal: 3/7 (Satellite Uplink for External Communications)
System: 7
Firewall: 7
Persona Limit: 20
Processor Limit: 50

The system Boats

TacNet 4 Support - This vehicle is capable of maintaining and running a Military Grade TacNet involving Support Aircrafts, both piloted and drone, as well as coordinating with ground forces.

1 Commander Pilot 7 - Adaptability 3, Chaser 5
5 Gunners Pilot 6 - Adaptability 3, Targetting 6
2 Matrix Security Agents

<3

What no Gauss Cannons?
"Largest Lasers Weapons known to Man" Really?
You really think Ares doesn't have a super laser cannon satellite in orbit by now?

I think this demonstrates how the vehicle rules don't really scale at all: the AC-130 has 4 guns, but this has 7 ungodly turrets, plus cruise missiles and bloody rapid-rockets. And it has a 'ship' laser; I hope it has the nuke to support it.

Lasers burn off a lot of energy firing from LEO. Easier to mount it on a plane and fly over the target area than try to retask a satellite and make it go zot.

I tend to write things in my flavor text like in a press release. I doubt that Are's would admit to having an orbital death laser.

That's not a moon...

It's true. But sometimes you have just have to have Sharks With 'friggen laser beams on their forheads.
Tropes and all that. SR with out the threat of killer satellites just doesn't seem worth it to me. I split the difference and accept
Kinetic Astroid Strike?

THOR Shot.

Dev ice Rating 3?
REALLY?
A good Hacker with a Signal 6 commlink can pwn that thing into oblivion.

I would go with something like this:

Device Rating: Special

This Vehicle/Weapon system is outfitted with the latest in Computing Technology.
It sports a Ares 7 Nexus that is skinlinked to the entire airship.
Response: 7
Signal: 3/7 (Satellite Uplink for External Communications)
System: 7
Firewall: 7
Persona Limit: 20
Processor Limit: 50

The system Boats

TacNet 4 Support - This vehicle is capable of maintaining and running a Military Grade TacNet involving Support Aircrafts, both piloted and drone, as well as coordinating with ground forces.

1 Commander Pilot 7 - Adaptability 3, Chaser 5
5 Gunners Pilot 6 - Adaptability 3, Targetting 6
2 Matrix Security Agents

Support for up to 20 Military Virtual Support and Command Personelle.

I would also give the thing the Increase Sensor Package Modification and fill the thing with every conceivable sensor known to man.

DON'T tell him! We could have made off with Millions!!!!

I'll admit that that hacking is my weak spot. I can see about adding this stuff as it looks to make sense.

For Flavor:

Maybe a couple of 'intelligence analyzing agents'
with
Profession: Military Strategy
Profession: Data analysis

Should probably give all those pilots 'Fuzzy Logic' was well

And I would not be surprised to hear that a system like this has a resident AI.

Ha.... Sad thing is I have already stated out Sharks with Lasers on thier heads...

I got grief about lasers firing underwater...

Still think that the Mutant Sea Bass is a better, more cost effective option.

The one that Major Gavilan is flying around in definitely has more like this.

Well you know some people have no evil villain in there souls. Besides haven't we come up with some kind of green laser or something that get around that? But i hear you on the sea bass, that is a mean fish.

It's important to not go crazy and build 'the ubership' when you're designing military items.

The ability of a laser to fire underwater is regrettably 'canon', as evidenced in one of the SR novels. I don't recall its name, only that it involved Gunderson Corp and the main character died rather ignonimously less than halfway through the book.

There is a fine line between uber and realistic. Software is "relatively" cheap. I was really debating putting the autocannons on it, but I figured the laser was not enough. The LMGs are mainly there for the anti-missile defense. (This thing is REALLY good at shooting down nukes with the ship laser and the MDS).

Some things that didn't make the design becasue I thought it was to "Uber"

1) Armor of 20. I was going to do it, but I thought it would make it to heavy.
2) Large Drone Landing pads with some wing man drones. Not realistic in turns of what an escort wing should be.
3) Sparrow anti-air missiles. I figure that is what escorts are for in the first place.

Also this is a heavily modified Skytrain. I think it should really cost @3.5 million, but I thought it was to cheap.

Military vehicles are automatically Device 5, anyway.

I'm not saying you pulled out all the stops. I'm saying that you didn't make an AC-130 equivalent.

I ended up addressing it as such.

But lets get RAW for a minute:per pg 41 in Arsenal.
QUOTE
For each range category beyond Short, decrease the weapon’s Damage Value by 1 (Medium –1, Long –2, Extreme
–3). Laser weapons are somewhat ineff ective in areas of reduced visibility, as the particles in the air reduce the weapon’s focus. In
areas of Light Fog/Mist/Rain/Smoke Visibility Modifiers (see p. 140, SR4), double all DV reductions due to range categories. In
areas of Heavy Fog/Mist/Rain/Smoke or Thermal Smoke, triple all DV reductions due to range categories.


So lets take RAW one step further and say that for underwater keep the ranges but put a (Medium –4, Long –8, Extreme –12). That means the DV9 for the laser goes to DC at medium, DV1 at long and its jsut a flashlight beam at extreme.

"Mine goes up to 11..."

Actually the fact I had to have a laser on it made it less of an AC-130 equivalent then the other stuff. I could probably make a really close equivalent if you wanted to have a real 1-1 conversion.

I know you could, but you'd be holding yourself back. That's my point, regarding the vehicle rules (not your choices).

-Glitch-

I wanted an 'equivalent' not clone. It's 61 years in the future. We have laser pistols and laser satellites. Why would it NOT have a laser? : )

As a side-note, the only reason I didn't suggest the Mercury Systems Ship Laser was because I thought from the description it could only be mounted on blue-water ocean vessels.

Considering a Spooky or a Spectre runs about $140 million, I'd say we're in the bargain bin.

Nope. It only requires a Heavy Turret mod (4 slots and a minum body of 14). Its just REALLY expensive and restricted.

I think so, too. Stupid RAW, conflicting with good sense.

I would propaply arm my AC-139 equilevant with a side mounted light gauss cannon or maybe even a pair of those.

Do you really think that Large Operational Vehicles like this is supposed to be would still be using a device node, instead of moving into the world of nexii?

And really, I think I went /okay/ on it's Matrix Stats, but light on the Pilot/Agent complement something like this would be hosting.

This thing probably has a couple of rigger cocoons with vaklyrie mod and escape hatch options.

I meant, sabs, that it certainly couldn't be 3. As in, at least 5.

I was serious about the nuke power, though. Special Equipment: Laser Charger? That 747-AWACS in that Tom Clancy book used one whole engine just to power the radar, right?

Yeah.. 3 that's just.. someone who hasn't read unwired or arsenal

I'm hoping that War will show us more of the marriage between hacking/rigging/combat that I expect to see.

Vehicles with pilots, IC, anti-hacking capabilities, Agent assisted tactics.. the works.

Eh, they tend to upgrade the generators in each engine to power the stuff. Can't fly as far, but the volts it can pump out! Throw a pan of Jiffy Pop on the radome and flick the switch.

That was someone who copy and pasted the stats template from his automated tow-truck and forgot to upgrade the device rating (honest)

He should include Operational Time it's true. But we all know that power has become someone ludicrous in this day and age. We've got 2' tall plushies that can rob banks

Shadowrun uses Handwavium power generation. I'm okay with that.

Shadowboxer

*sigh* What has been seen cannot be unseen. I am ashamed to own that book.

Hey, I knew which book you were talking about with that short description.

"Hey, what's that one book where it's written like a crappy tabletop session?"
"Oh, that's Shadowboxer."

Lol yeah pretty much, or "What's the one that reads like a Uwe Boll movie"

Although, Postal was pretty good.

I don't watch Uwe Boll movies on principle.

Wow, the vehicle design rules really are broken, heh.

An Apache gunship costs $15.4M dollars in today's money, lol. That thing, even converted to nuyen, should be closer to 40 or 50M or more.

It reads like it should be piloted by Space Marines or Servitors.
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/mediawiki/image...erhawkstore.jpg

I was just thinking.
It should have a living Ivy covering.
Manatech
Manatech connected rigger cocoons (with ManaGoggles)

I would imagine that it might have a mage onboard in said rigger cocoon, who is astrally projecting and flying along next to the airship.
It might also benefit from a bound spirit with Guardian.

I'd still go for the huge ass railgun not the laser.

Oddly in the future combat craft are cheap. I'd drop some of the weaponary for large landing racks why cos then you can have two nimrods with an LMG plus a MRL to cover you ass not just 2 LMG turreted.

The reason I mention power supply needs is because the Mercury laser mentions it, that's all.

Railguns have recoil. Lasers don't.

Big reason to use them on aircraft.

As for the landing racks, I just couldn't figure out where to put them other than the wings and I pictured it as a prop style plane.

Well, that's not necessarily an issue. 105mm howitzers have recoil. The A-10's GAU-8 has a little bit of recoil, too.

Not true, as it happens. Lasers definitely do have a recoil, though probably not as strong as a similarly powerful railgun.

To answer that: no. They considered it but Horizon, having bought out Lucasfilm, threatened to sue them for copyright infringement (hey, maybe Georges Lucas is the Consensus !).

It is a laser because that is historically how Ares/the Corporate Court kills big scary things they have unanimously decided they don't like.