Weapons and Armour of the Boromites – 2

A continuation of Adam Murton’s grisly explanation of the Boromite’s equipment. If you missed it, try Part 1.

Ghinir was a traitor but he was not stupid; he knew getting found out was always a risk. That’s why he had dug himself an escape tunnel in his little spare time. After all, he was a Boromite and tunnelling was second nature to his people. When Rock Father Thurrid had demanded he choose the method of his death, Ghinir had taken the opportunity to escape.

As he reached the tunnel mouth he allowed himself a smile at Thurrid’s expense. His compacta-crate of provisions, including a mag gun and some credit chips, was right where he had left it. As he grabbed the crate and pulled himself out onto the surface, the smile became a chuckle, then a deep, throaty roar at Thurrid’s stupidity. Ghinir just had to trudge downhill to the transmat and he would be free!

It was then that the flood lights came on and illuminated the hillside. This was both unexpected and extremely disconcerting. Ghinir’s chuckled died in his throat as he stared at the source of the light. He could just about make out the guild’s heavy hauler amongst the glare. Some dark shapes drew his eye to the right. Four support teams crouched next to the large utility vehicle. Behind them he could make out a familiar silhouette. Thurrid had made it to the surface quicker than Ghinir; which perhaps should have been no surprise given the narrowness of the makeshift tunnel.
Thurrid’s voice boomed out amplified by the hauler. “I had hoped you would take this option: after all the support teams always benefit from an opportunity to practice.”

The weapon crews were bent over an x-launcher, a mag-mortar, an x-howitzer and a heavy frag-borer. The first three were indirect weapons capable of dropping overhead fire on a target. They could fire explosive rounds and special ammunitions such as net, grip, scrambler, arc and blur. Runing would be a pointless waste of energy: the x-howitzer had a truly impressive working range and could easily cover a large battlefield – if the mag mortar didn’t get him first, that was. The mortar had a reasonable range but could fire explosives that inflicted more wounds on any squads unfortunate enough to be in the blast area.

The air filled with a mighty thrum as the mag mortar fired and moments later Ghinir found himself rooted to the spot. The mag-mortar could fire suppressive net munitions, which made movement difficult, but this heavy drag on his limbs felt like grip, a localised maze of mass sinks.

	Range
Weapon	Effv	Long	Extr	Shots	Attacks	Special
X-Launcher (Support)	(10)30	60	120	1xSV1	–	OH; EITHER Blast D5, No Cover OR Special Munitions Arc, Grip, Suspensor Net
X-howitzer (Heavy)	(20)50	100	250	1xSV2	–	Cumbersome, Large, OH; EITHER Blast D8, No Cover  OR Special Munitions Arc, Grip, Suspensor Net
Boromite Mag Mortar (Heavy)	(10)30	40	60	1xSV2	–	Cumbersome, Large, OH; EITHER Blast D8+2, Breaching SV3, No Cover OR Special Munitions Arc, Grip, Suspensor Net

As he was rendered immobile he had no choice but to watch the support teams train their weapons on him. Often, they fielded mag light supports, mag heavy supports, mag-cannons, heavy mag-cannons and plasma cannons, all crewed weapon versions of the guns he had considered earlier. Sometimes they even fielded the much-feared plasma light support multi-role weapon. The exception was that the mag-cannon and heavy mag-cannon had ammo capable of delivering a gravitational charge which inflicted massive damage and ripped apart vehicle and drone targets. Whilst the most commonly used weapons, it wasn’t the cannon that were being fielded now.

Weapon	– Range –
	Effective	Long	Extreme	Shots	Attacks	Special
Mag Light Support (Support)	30	50	100	3xSV2	–	RF, PBS
Mag Cannon (Support)	30	50	100	1xSV5	–	Massive Damage
Mag Heavy Support (Heavy)	30	50	100	5xSV3	–	Medium, M4, RF, PBS
Heavy Mag Cannon (Heavy)	50	100	250	1xSV7	–	Large, Massive Damage
Boromite Plasma Cannon (Light Support)	30	40	80	1xSV7	–	Fade

The crackle of energy warned him that the heavy frag borer was firing. Ghinir almost cried. The teheck’n thing was designed to rip apart solid rock-faces and in war it took out bunkers and buildings. But Thurrid was ordering its use against a single man in reflex armour.

	Range
Weapon	Effv	Long	Extr	Shots	Attacks	Special
Frag Borer (Light Support)	20	30	50	1xSV4+3	–	Fractal Lock, Breaching SV5+4
Heavy Frag Borer (Heavy)	50	100	200	1xSV5+3	–	Fractal Lock, Breaching SV7+4, Large

The frag weapons were based on fractal technology, the effect building up over time so were only really useful against a stationary target. In hindsight, that explained why they had fired grip ammo to hold him tight. If the target – he! – moved, then the effect was lost and the crew would have to start again.

Ghinir wished he could move even just to beg. The standard frag borer would have hit as hard as any one shot from a mag heavy support weapon, even on first contact, but the heavy frag borer struck like a plasma cannon, then grew progressively more lethal to become the most powerful hitters on Antarean battlefields.

And so it was here: Ghinir screamed as he was literally torn apart. A Boromite traitor slain by the tools of the Boromites.

Perhaps it was a fitting end, after all.