ARMY
Fang-80
Guided Rail-Dart Light Frame
Saradook Crimson Sun light frame, fielded in packs of eighteen by the mercenary companies the Saradook hire out. Its right forearm carries twin rail barrels that throw fin-steered darts, one barrel after the other, which turn onto their mark in flight, aircraft and ground alike; its left hand is open. It jumps, dodges and flies on the jets behind the grilles of its calves, steered by four pegs under its chest.
01 · Speed
On foot, in the air, on its thrusters
Its thrusters push 825 kN, 11.4 times its weight: flat out at sea level it reaches Mach 0.93.
02 · Combat
One frame, and the squad of 18
One frame at base rank, from the battle sheet; ranks strengthen hull, shield and damage.
03 · Weapon
Guided rail darts
Guided rail darts
Twin rail barrels on the right forearm · fin-steered darts, a barrel at a time
Its two barrels take turns: each drives a 2.4 kg dart down its rails at 3 km/s, 11 MJ of speed and nothing else. Four fins and a seeker steer it onto its mark in flight, aircraft or ground, across its 7.5 km in 2.5 s.
Fire cycle · one frame over 9 s
63 an attack every 1.5s: 42 a second. Six attacks land 378 from one frame, 6,804 from the squad of 18.
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.
Fang-80 signature tech · 8
Each Fang-80 dart is given a seeker of its own and fins that answer it: it turns onto its mark in flight, so the frame fires on a mark well off its nose, and on the move, without turning to face it. The seeker is weight taken from the dart: 57 a shot where it was 63.
Between volleys each Fang-80 bounds on the jets behind its calf grilles: it takes 40% less damage, moves 1.4 times as fast and slips through a formation without touching it. A shot breaks the bounding, and it takes 3 s without firing or being hit to bound again.
A Fang-80 company hired out is put down where its employer needs it: the pack drops onto either flank strip on its jets, and moves a tenth faster into the fight, at 66 m/s.
One Fang-80 in each pack carries a clan spotter's optics in its open hand. Cloaks within 6 km are stripped, and what is revealed is marked for allied fire at 8% more damage.
Fang-80 barrels stop taking turns and fire as fast as their rails fill: an attack every 0.9 s for 4 s, then a 3.2 s lock while the rails cool. Five darts where there would have been three, and a tenth more fire across the fight.
A second company signed to the same contract fills out the Fang-80 pack: twenty-four frames where there were eighteen, each with three tenths less plate and shield, and 54 a shot where it was 63. An eighth more fire, and the pack's protection spread thinner.
Sworn to guard the Guild's convoys and people, the Fang-80 pack screens them from what flies at them: it hunts squads of eight or more first, and its darts tumble as they strike, so a struck unit moves at three quarters of its pace for 3 s; 57 a shot where it was 63.
Each Fang-80 raises a shield emitter in its open left hand across itself as it fires. It takes 55 points of fire across the forward 72°; fire from the flank or from behind goes past it.