PT-BVRM Pteranodon OXZ

Recoverable missile which "paralyses" offenders and fugitives.

Pteranodon - Mythical bird-precursor, Terran. (Artist's impression). Credit: Xexedi University, dept. of Mythography and pre-History.

A Toothless Flying Terror

This week, a Pteranodon is set to soar out of the hidden heart of Galcop's 'Black Labs', our faceless, voiceless inside informant told your favourite reporter earlier today. The name's meaning, in a now-forgotten Terran language, is 'Toothless Flyer'. Uncannily fitting for a standoff missile that purportedly will irradiate but won't kill.

On evidence gathered, Galcop is in the throes of a last bid to survive: economizing on manpower and vehicles, downsizing the arsenal drastically, then licensing all its new assets out to civilian contractors, our Vault Whisperer strongly intimates.

And their darkly innovative PT-BVRM Pteranodon is already third in a line - or suite - of licensable weapons.

But PT is unquestionably the most frightening. It scares the Giles out of us because it will never be seen, detected, or known about by its victims, whose vessels will silently fail, ceasing to respond or function in an instant. That's no warning and no bang, Tuners. Nothing, or very little, on a viewscreen, port, or scanner. Our Black Lab-Rat goes on:

"The PT-BVRM was an inevitable outgrowth of the NPB Neutralizer, in turn a child of a bout of intense brainstorming in the R&D think-tank, spurred by a need to curb the increasing and unnecessary slaughter of infracting entities and vessels in ever more lawless systems like Riedquat, Uszaa, Atriso, and a host of others with similar societal and governmental problems: Locales where Police personnel and outmoded vehicles are perpetually spread thinly. Licensing of Galcop assets has come in the nick of time. We now have an experienced vigilante police force of growing confidence and unheard-of power to prevent the escalation of offences via fully autonomous Rider Drones (SDD) and now the Pteranodon, which extends the enforcement circumference to the System as a whole."

We tell our Black Breather that we've grasped the essentials - not a lot of mystique to the term 'standoff weapon'... So PT houses an NPB Accelerator like those now being fitted in alarmingly greater numbers to the luckier Harvesters' mounts. And the bird's NPB, in split-second sequence, curdles the innards of all ships in its scanner environs (not just the 'primary'), stopping them in their tracks and making them instant towbar-fodder. 'Win-Win', right, nobody dies?

"Fatalities from a direct neutral particle beam's effects are rare, those that have, regrettably, occurred more often down to collateral interior energy-damage and fires, also small explosions inside critical systems; more rarely failure of life-support. The vessel as a whole - its hull - remains largely undamaged, but in need of comprehensive refit to become serviceable again - that's engines, laser weapons, computers, all electronic components."

There's no stopping this one once it gets into its stride: "Our PT-BVRM hull is biomimetically shaped, structurally profiled after the Pteranodon's beak itself, not merely for aesthetics, but to reduce frontal area for particle impacts at high velocity and for aiding in mass distribution for stable thrust alignment and agility. This design houses over three times the inertial mass of a conventional missile, a necessity to contain the Particle Accelerator, state-of-the-art AI guidance systems, and a vastly more powerful drive. The PT attains speeds more than twice that of the ECM Hardened, crossing a system in under ten minutes."

A picture starts to form of a Harvester 'standing off' near a Station or a Witchpoint marker, targeting, then launching a Ptera, and sauntering off for a snack while far out in the blackness a group of hapless ships become ghosts. On re-seating itself, our gallant commander yawns as the list of the incapacitated skitters greenly down the main display. It's 'mop up' time again. Charming image to lay us down to sleep on, is it not, Tuners?

"So we'll choke on fumes of roasting circuitry, gasp for any breath in a cold system-less dark, or be slowly crisped by 'resultant fires' in the cabin?" we query, for nothing more than confirmation. Do we imagine a short nod from the shadow? Nothing else to add? - The murky smear flickers off the holo. And we're left with only our Tuners.

We suddenly know how we'd prefer to go: In a blaze of defiance under the beam lasers of some honest Jameson.

--Tea Mereso, retained freelance, Xexedi Enquirer - Telling you what you need to know when you need to know it.

Insider Technical

[Included for those among our dear Tuners who aspire to be, or are already, Harvesters equipped with those oh so enviable Galcop credentials. For nay, the above snippets were far from all that our too-obliging source spilled to your devoted go-between... Notes are passed along exactly as received.]

ARMING of the Pteranodon's launcher is accomplished by accessing your onboard system's F5 screen and hitting [a].

LAUNCHING a PT-BVRM missile is effectuated thus:

Press [l] on the F5 status screen after arming.

Please find here listed, per the PT-BVRM Operator Handbook, all essential functions accessible on the mothership's F5 Status interface screen:

		F5->[o] list and re-sort Major Infractors.
		F5->[c] cycle long-range infractor targets.
		F5->[a] ARM PT-BVRM launcher.
		F5->[l] LAUNCH PT-BVRM.
		F5->[r] RECOVER PT-BVRM (if in range).
		F5->[s] SAFE (disarm) Launcher.

PT-BVRM Operations & Behaviour

On launch confirmation by the BVRM package, an operator need do nothing. The first primary target is automatically assigned. After irradiation of the first primary, an operator is expected to cycle subsequent targets manually, using the [c] key from their F5 ship Status Screen.

On neutralization of the Primary, a Ptera's target may be switched to the next prioritized on the updated Offender List, or indeed any other potentially hostile vessel in the system SDD-Network has tagged for action.

Black Labs test pilots' tip: Fit an Overdrive and follow missile to target.

If there are no more Offenders in system range, the Pteranodon will loiter until your vessel comes into scanner range of its sensors, at which a request will be sent for recovery or assignment to a different target.

It must be emphasized that any deployed PT-BVRM is to be retrieved without fail before re-docking or exiting via Witchspace to a new system. Defaulting on this obligation brings with it grave Galcop penalties and said penalties shall not be limited to those of a pecuniary nature.

PT-BVRM Charges & Forfeits

The initial cost of a Galcop PT-BVRM Licence is 5000 credits, renewable every LY (Lave Year).

Every PT-BVRM launch carries an incremental tax on a base (or starting) level of 25 credits. Though 'Incremental' is hidden in the Licence small-print, it is no less real. The launch-tax increment starts at 0.05 credits and increases by the same amount on each subsequent missile deployment.

Loss of a PT-BVRM missile through destruction or negligence incurs a Galcop penalty of 500 credits. In the case of the latter, a downgrade in legal status - possibly accompanied by revocation of an operator's Licence - will result.

There are no SDD-Network bounties, credits or bonuses for the use of a PT-BVRM. Your work as an operator is considered preparatory to subsequent operations using SDD Riders or your own firepower.

However, as a courtesy boon, Galcop will pay a BVRM operator 2 credits for every primary infractor and 1 credit for every collateral infractor vessel irradiated.

And finally, to encourage recovery of a very expensive asset, Galcop will pay a retrieval boon of 100 credits for every successful PT-BVRM pickup.

Recommended OXPs

Sound, not to say essential, choices for those donning vigilante Harvester garb:

Police IFF Scanner Upgrade

Police Player

The most notable observed effect of this tiny tweak is that ships of class Pirate no longer openly threaten or attack the player's ship. You are essentially transformed into a police vigilante, or proxy copper. Best results with an Asp or Viper!

NPB Neutralizer

Galcop's Neutral Particle Beam weapon causes catastrophic internal damage - frying computers, disabling power, knocking out weapons and critical systems - while throwing off little energy as surface heat. A direct hit leaves the target a drifting derelict without triggering fatal explosions of fuel or ordinance.

Small Ships

Flyable and essentially unaltered versions of the Asp Mk II, Constrictor, Fer-de-Lance, Gecko, Krait, Mamba, Sidewinder, Viper, Viper Interceptor, Worm, and Transporter. Those ships originally sans Hyperdrive now have one; those without cargo space remain without. Newly rationalized prices applied.

GETter HUD v.1.6 - available only here!

FE Shipyards' premier trader/vigilante HUD now integrates realtime tracking of this OXP's closest High Offender in-system. Unzip the file to your Oolite AddOns folder.

Versions


	Version 1.0
		* PT-BVRM Operator Statistics on F5F5 Mission screen.
		* All displayed statistics saved and loaded via missionVariables.
		* Galcop 'retrieval boon' paid on successful recovery of PT-BVRM.
		* Galcop 'couresy boon': 2 cr for primary, 1 cr each for collateral irradiations.
		* Retrieval ([r] when in scan range) and 500 cr penalty for non-retrieval.
		* PT-BVRM auto-irradiates multiple infractors including Primary, on proximity.
		* PT-BVRM switches targets when operator cycles through them from the F5 screen.
		* F5->[o] lists and re-sorts High Offenders, showing condition, bounty, distance.
		* F5->[c] cycles long-range infractor targets.
		* F5->[a] ARM launcher.
		* F5->[l] LAUNCH PT-BVRM.
		* F5->[r] RECOVER PT-BVRM.
		* F5->[s] SAFE (disarm) Launcher.


	Version 0.0
		*Proof of concept - functional, launchable, trackable, integrates with SDD.