FLEET Marine Equipment
- Credo of the FLEET Medical Corps
Holding the line like no tank or gunship can, the brave men, women, and gender-unspecifieds of the FLEET Marine Corps are just as mortal as any other human out there on the battlefield. Too numerous to be able to keep RESPAWN templates (despite as fast a crash program as the Board can muster), they have to keep themselves alive the old-fashioned way.
Fortunately, they're all very very good at it by now...
Powered Combat Armour:
[From the FLEET engineering catalogue, personal armour section - entry PERS-CIA-ALPHA]
Yes gentlebeings, feast your eyes upon this proud example of the height of Personal Combat Engineering! The Mk CXIII PCA (or "Stomper" for short) is the most powerful set of powered armor currently on the market in the Galaxy!
Pesky Balrogs bothering the neighbors? Imps getting into the trash? Cerberus leaving droppings on the lawn? SAY NO MORE! The Stomper is fully equipped to allow you to Exorcise with Extreme Prejudice! The Stomper is equipped for annihilation, strangulation or just persuasion for those demons who aren't really bad and just need to talk .... to the barrel of it's 10mm tribarrel powergun or 20mm plasma tri-barrel SAW!
If that is not enough and that Terror From The Pit foolishly decides to get close and personal, extend the monomolecular gladius from the off-weapon arm and practice your skill at evisceration! Lose your blade? Then simply crack heads as the suit gives you the power to match a Balrog in an arm wrestling contest! If they should try to hide? Then the built in sensor suite will search all bands of light beyond even those of x-ray and radio for the bastard!
Featuring the latest in neural feedback technology, the Mk CXIII feels and acts as an extension of one's own body. You should feel well protected as you tramp through the swamps surrounding the River Styx as the specially imported Titadium Weave armor soaks up all blows the enemy may DARE to strike at you, and the uberstable hafnium generator ensures that you will have weeks of reliable power with which to bash the Damned!
Our armors are also all three times blessed by
the serving Pope and given the personal Seal of Guarantee from The
Dagda himself. Further treatment from the Otherworld's finest mages and
druids also ensure full protection from thaumaturgical sources.
Soldiers feeling like they'd rather go home than charge stark naked at
the rampaging Legions of Hell? Then outfit them in the Mk CXIII and get
your victory today!
[Historical note: While precise technical
details of FLEET line combat armour must obviously remain classified,
for the protection of personnel in the field, the above sales pitch was
highly effective when sent to Board High Command. It appears that the
space-based warriors of the future also have good marketing skills -
which, if one thinks about it, are only really a logical extension of
PSY-OPS anyway...]
---
Battlefield
Medicine:
It is a stark fact of reality,
despite what some of their officers might think, that the Board
and FLEET are at war with the Adversary. This type of war requires
combat, and combat requires casualties, and casualties always have and
always will need medical attention if they are to survive.
Step forward "he Cocktail", an emergency combat cure-all of FLEET field medics.
An autoject syringe carrying epinephrine, adrenaline,
micro-encapsulated avatine, atropine, tetraperinol, aspirin, vat grown
unicorn horn extract, suspension of phoenix feather, phoenix tears,
holy water with a suspension of nanobots inscribed with various holy
symbols from various religions, as well as a suspension in holy water
of sterilized ground from the city of Jerusalem, the Vatican, and
Nazareth, and plant extracts from the Garden of Gethsemane. The
Admirals were very meticulous about that - stories still do the rounds
of Loweko setting his entire staff officer corps to researching every
Earthly myth and legend of supernatural healing and warding. Weird
Science and M-Div regularly accept commissions to test new ingredients.
The
only currently approved method of delivering the Cocktail is in a
specially manufactured gas-powered autoject syringe. The device is 8.5
inches long and two inches wide, with a smaller cylinder (one half inch
by four inches) which contains pressurized gas to operate the device.
The larger cylinder tapers to a rounded nose, which is the sealed cover
on the red activation stud. Inside, the Cocktail is is a ceramic
ampoule inscribed with sigils of preservation and purity to improve
shelf life (and because the Medical Corps aren't stupid, also kept vacumn-sealed).
The syringe is used by
removing the safety pin, snapping the sealed cover off the activation
stud, pressing the stud against the proper area, and pushing downwith a
stabbing motion. The needle will snap out, penetrating armor, clothing,
etc, and inject the contents in under a second. Second-generation PA
suits have autoinjection systems built into their normal stimulant and
chemboost packs.
It sounds awfully rough-and-ready, but it
works - and it has saved many, many lives.