Military personnel have equipment suited to their assignment. As discussed in the last post, military personnel in the Deeps of Lyrae setting don’t just walk around packing heat. If a naval crewman or space marine is on sentry duty, they will be issued a sidearm. If they are on a boarding party, they should be issued a sidearm, a rifle, and grenades. If they are on a boarding party or at general quarters they will wear a flak jacket and helmet.
Here is a rundown on what you would find on the person of typical naval personnel in the 261st (the Sector Fleet). This was assembled from the Basic Set and GURPS Ultra Tech.
Equipment Loadout
Always Worn
- Survival Watch (includes: homing beacon, biomonitor, GPS, radio, IFF Comm software). $900, ½ lb.
- Naval Assault Boots, feet DR 30/15 (underside/top), $150, 3 lbs.
GQ/Boarding Party Equipment
That is, this is what is worn during a General Quarters alarm (think: “battlestations” or “red alert” from Star Trek) or when assigned as a Boarding Party (e.g., to board and inspect the adventurer’s ship).
- Web Gear, $50, 2 lbs.
- Survival Kit, packaged as strap-on belt, containing:
- Rescue Bubble (attached to belt) $400, 2 lbs. (slang: “glad bag”)
- Disposable emergency LED flashlight (red/white, flash/continuous switch), $4, neg.
- 50’ coiled monofilament line, $20, neg.
- 2’ Kevlar thread, $1, neg.
- Ceramic razor blade, $1, neg.
- 10’ folded strip of pressure-tight vacuum-proof duct tape, $1, neg.
- Safety pins, neg., neg.
- “Leatherman”-style multitool $70, ¾ lb.
- Filtration Canteen (1 quart), 180, 3 lb. (full)
- Field Dressing Kit (4 plastiskin bandages), $2, 1/8 lb.
- 1 tube, Antibiotic Cream, $1, 1/8 lb.
- 2 painkiller tablets, neg., neg.
- 2 stimulant tablets, neg., neg.
- Naval Crash Helmet:
- TL11 Light Infantry Helmet, skull, DR 36, $650, 3 lbs.
- Includes: Holographic HUD (no glasses required – integrates with pistol), protected hearing, radio headset and microphone (integrates with watch), IFF Comm software.
- Naval Flak Vest:
- Nanoweave Tactical Vest, torso/groin DR 24/10*, $900, 9 lbs.
Weapons
Sentry Duty / Officer of the Deck Weapon
- Ship’s Sidearm: Heavy Rainbow Laser Pistol
- Damage 4d(3) burn, Acc 6, Range 900/2700, Weight 3.3/2C, RoF 10, Shots 56(3), ST 6, Bulk -2, Rcl 1, $2400, LC 3
- Includes: Recognition Grip, D-Tag, IFF interrogator, Laser Sight, Electrolaser (stun) setting, Multispectral laser sight (integrated with helmet): +1 to hit, Diagnostic Computer
- Pistol Holster (belt), $25, ½ lb.
Boarding Party Weapons
- Sidearm and Holster as detailed just above
- Boarding Party Primary Weapon: Rainbow Laser Carbine
- Damage 5d(3) burn, Acc 12, Range 1,500/4,500, Weight 5.6/2C, RoF 10, Shots 28(3), ST 5 Bulk -3, Rcl 1, $4,600, 2 lbs.
- Includes: Recognition Grip, D-Tag, IFF interrogator, Laser Sight, Electrolaser (stun) setting, Multispectral laser sight (integrated with helmet): +1 to hit, Diagnostic Computer
- Includes: 25mm Under-barrel Grenade Launcher pre-loaded with 4 Tangler Grenades (ST 15 to resist) 0.8 lbs.
- Ammo Belt: 10 C Cells; 5 lbs.
- Hand Grenades: 2 x Smoke, 2 x mini 40mm HEC (8d cr ex), 1 x mini 40mm HEMP (sticky, must be attached to target: 6dx5(10) cr inc + linked 4d cr ex [2d fragmentation cut])
- Infrared Vision Goggles (added to Helmet)
Environmental Hazard Precautions
The above loadout applies to the average encounters in the Deeps of Lyrae, an extremely safe, boring sector. If there is some reason to be cautious, a boarding party would in addition be equipped with:
- Space Biosuit (worn under uniform as a precaution against decompression or an unexpected hostile atmosphere). This is a flexible counterpressure vacc suit that adds DR 15/3* (flexible) below the neck. Use the lower number of the split DR for cor, cr, or tox attacks. It is also self-sealing for punctures 1″ and below and self-healing. It’s solar-powered and absorbs human waste. A backup emergency survival computer is printed into the suit. $10,000, 5 lb.
- Life Support Belt Pack. Includes backup battery power. You can get six weeks of life support, even in the dark (i.e. no solar charging). See GURPS UT entry for Space Biosuit, p. 179. Weight/cost included in the prior entry.
- Helmet chin/neck plate. Rather than use a translucent hood, this helmet chin/neck plate attaches to the crash helmet detailed above, converting it to a full, rigid vacuum combat helmet when connected to seals along the bottom of the helmet visor and attached to the rigid neck seal of the biosuit. When not attached, the helmet chin/neck plate can be attached to a belt clip. When attached, provides full pressure support and makes the wearer immune to any airborne environmental threat. $200, 0.75 lb.
In general, the units in the Deeps of Lyrae don’t have reason to use this precautionary gear, though they will know how to use it. Note that the biosuit is worn as a precaution. If in contrast the navy expects trouble, or they expect there to be a vacuum or hostile environment, they instead send in space marines in sealed battlesuits, not crewmen in bodystockings.
The navy slang term for wearing this stuff is “sucking rubber.” (Although it is not made of rubber, the slang is presumably historical.)
Lethality
Note in these loadouts that in the Deeps of Lyrae setting there is widespread use of nonlethals. The players do not need to be mass murderers unless they, er… want to. The navy NPCs will be trained to go for the nonlethal first.
For example, if something funny starts to happen when a navy patrol is inspecting the PCs ship, the most likely result is that the boarding party will stick the players to the wall with their under-barrel tangler grenades. If something attacks an enlisted crewman while posted to sentry duty, the most likely response will be that she will fire her sidearm on stun, as that is the default setting for safety.
Steal This Loadout
On many worlds of the Deeps of Lyrae sector the standard loadout for a Navy boarding party would be EXTREMELY hard to obtain, very valuable, and very illegal. These weapons could make a fine target for the adventurers.
The Navy-issue Rainbow Laser Carbines and Pistols are fine machines held in high regard. Yet also notice that these weapons have recog grips and IFF systems. If you knock out a boarding party swabbie and grab her gun, it won’t work. If you override the gun’s security system and get it to fire for you even though it has a recog grip, it still won’t fire at someone in the Navy because of the IFF system. And even if you get around all of the above problems, the D-Tag means the device itself can be easily tracked. So these weapons need a crooked armorer’s careful and lengthy attention before they can be made useful.
When they have not been issued all navy weapons and equipment is secured in an armory.
Action Outside the Hull
In space (that is, vacuum), note that the rainbow laser’s range is divided by 10. However, it is not typical that Navy crew with these loadouts would be fighting in space. For EVA combat the Navy prefers space marines using fully-self-contained Battlesuits.
The boarding party is equipped with sticky HEMP grenades in order to allow them to get through an armored military hull plate if necessary. However, this isn’t so everyone on the boarding party can go outside. Rather, the interiors of warships will be occasionally sealed by heavy (and even armored) walls and hatches for better structural integrity, damage control, and security against boarders. The boarding party carries these HEMP stickies so that if a criminal shuts the door on them while they are on board they don’t have to give up and go home in defeat.
Breaching the hull from the outside in vacuum, in contrast, would be done as mentioned above: in battlesuits and with more specialized cutting equipment.
IMAGE CODA: Created by DALL-E 3.
Requires Concentrate 
1 Comment