ARMY
Cyclops
Eye-Beam Light Frame
Anu'Aki Guild light frame, fielded in packs of eighteen. Its dome is its head and its chest in one, and its single lens holds a free-electron beam on its mark that opens at 2 a second and doubles every fifth of a second it holds it, to 640 a second after 1.66 s, out to 4 km, on aircraft and ground alike; a new mark starts it over. It jumps, dodges and flies on the two pods on its back, their nozzles turned down at their feet.
01 · Speed
On foot, in the air, on its thrusters
Its thrusters push 956 kN, 8.5 times its weight: flat out at sea level it reaches Mach 1, past the sound barrier.
02 · Combat
One frame, and the squad of 18
One frame at base rank, from the battle sheet; ranks strengthen hull, shield and damage. Its damage a second is the beam at full power, which it climbs to over a lock.
03 · Weapon
High-energy beam laser
High-energy beam laser
Free-electron laser behind the lens of its single eye · one held beam
The lens of its single eye holds one beam on its mark out to 4 km. It opens at 0.3 MJ a second and doubles every 0.2 s it holds that mark, to 110 MJ a second after 1.66 s; a new mark starts it over. Light throws nothing back; the air it crosses takes its share.
Spin-up · damage a second over a 3.3 s lock
A lock held for 3.3 s lands about 1,251. Break the lock and it climbs again from a flicker.
What lands · by distance through air
Sea-level air. In vacuum, nothing takes from it: it lands whole at any range.
Reach against the other units
04 · Available tech
What a commander can fit
Bought mid-battle with supply, for the squad of 18. Each one gives something and costs something.
Core upgrades · 4
Adds a +50% outer targeting band. Attacks, repairs, and boarding channels operate at 55% output beyond native range, and armed squads hold that safer line.
Converts the squad into a breacher: it closes to 45% range and deals +60% damage there, but deals 15% less outside the breach band.
No single hit can strip more than 30% of maximum hull after shields. Mobile units lose 12% thrust; static emplacements lose 18% maximum integrity. Strong into alpha strikes, weak into rapid fire.
Burns at +65% speed while marching or closing on its chosen standoff, then disengages in combat; turn authority is halved during the burn.
Cyclops signature tech · 8
The Guild's sun-harvester optics keep each Cyclops's eye primed before it opens: the beam opens at four times the light it did, doubles every 0.2 s as before, and is at full after 1.26 s where it took 1.66. A primed lens runs hot: 576 a second at full where it was 640.
Between marks each Cyclops bounds on the two pods on its back: it takes 40% less damage, moves 1.4 times as fast and slips through a formation without touching it. A lit beam breaks the bounding, and it takes 3 s without firing or being hit to bound again.
Cyclops frames ride out with the Guild's caravans and are put down where the road is threatened: the pack drops onto either flank strip on its pods, and moves a tenth faster into the fight, at 66 m/s.
Between marks each Cyclops's eye is turned to looking: its lens reads the light off whatever is hidden. Cloaks within 3 km are stripped, and what is revealed is marked for allied fire at 8% more damage.
The Cyclops's core is opened to its eye past its rating: the beam burns at 1,088 a second for 8 s, then shuts for 2 s while the lens cools, and climbs again from where it opens. An eighth more across the fight, all of it in the surges.
Aki forges put the reserve in the field with the Cyclops pack: twenty-four frames where there were eighteen, each with three tenths less plate and shield, and 544 a second where it was 640. An eighth more fire, and the pack's protection spread thinner.
Cyclops eyes are opened wide on what flies at the caravans: the pack hunts squads of eight or more first, and its glare blinds what it holds, so a struck unit moves at three quarters of its pace until 3 s after the beam leaves it; 576 a second where it was 640.
The shield on each Cyclops's left forearm is a photonic emitter of the Guild's own make, raised across the frame as it burns. It takes 55 points of fire across the forward 72°; fire from the flank or from behind goes past it.