Janus-class CAV
Name/Type: Janus-class Compact Assault Vehicle
Designer/Manufacturer: Kashan Defense Industries / Contegorian Confederation
Combat Role: Modular Medium Tank
Crew: 1 Driver + 1 Commander + 1 astromech droid
Length: 6.7 Meters
Propulsion: Treads
Speed: 175 km/h
Shield Rating: 100 SBD
Hull Rating: 150 RU
Weapons: 2 Turreted Modular Weapons Compartments, 1 Retractable Light Repeating Blaster.
Other: Modular Secondary Shielding, Tractor
The Janus-class Medium Tank is joint venture between Kashan Defense Industries and the Irollan Reformists to provide a low-cost alternative to the Confederation's troubled repulsorlift tank programs. Despite General Hans Trutzig's lobbying against adopting the Janus, the Council pushed it through because of its similar philosophy to the successful Unity Project; the tank uses many of the same components as the successful Ares Tank and other confederate vehicles as well as having a constructive peace time role. Unlike those vehicles, the Janus is small enough that it can fit inside most shuttles and light transports, especially the CG-10, that it does not require specialized landing craft.
The Janus sports good speed for a treaded vehicle (though not as high as the similar CAVw PX-10) as well as fairly thick armor and reasonable shielding for its size, but most Confederate soldiers believe it to be underarmed compared to even old vehicles. Its turret, controlled from the inside of the chassis, is fully occupied by a pair of modular weapons bays which can be fitted with a variety of light to medium weaponry. This feature combined with modular shielding inspired by the Dhothil Starfighter allows the Dhothil to fulfill a variety of mission roles in the Confederation army. In times of peace, the Janus-class Tank is used a agricultural and construction tractor, further building up Confederation worlds' economies and defenses.
Technical Explanations:
Cost: Low
Cost: The Janus reuses parts and technology from several existing designs, such as the Are's propulsion and the S16s shield generators, which keeps development and maintenance costs low at the price of efficiency. Moreover, the design is deliberately kept relatively low tech, and to extent low performance, in order to keep costs down. It's only two above average strengths, moderately good armor and propulsion(for treads), are already outclassed by designs existing decades ago. Rather than relying on expensive technologies, the Janus' strengths are based being able to built in large numbers (even by poorer Confederate nations) and to adapt to different conditions.
Internal Environment: The Janus requires three crewmembers: a driver, commander, and an astromech droid, typically an R4 unit. All of them sit in a sealed cabin with an atmospheric supply of several days. The driver sees through a thick, small ceraglass pane near the front of the tank. The commander(and also weapon's operator) sets behind him underneath the automated turret. The commander views data from the tank's various sensors and other systems through a holographic HUD display. The astromech unit sits to the right of the driver and in front of the commander, where it typically fine tunes systems like shielding, sensors, atmospheric controls, and the light repeating blaster cannon. The droid also frequently makes minor repairs to the vehicle as needed.
Armor/Chassis: Moderately High
Armor: The chassis of the Janus follows the classic design of many tanks before it, but the fine details of it were dictated by reusing parts from the Ares tank. The basic frame of the Janus is constructed of ferrocarbon, like most KDI creations, but the armor itself is made of Quadanium Carbide, a refractory hard ceramic already extensively used in other Confederate vehicles. It is more lightweight than traditional metal armor, which helps with the fuel economy and speed, but the armor isn't as effective against projectile weapons as typical metallic armors. In order to keep costs low, the Janus does not include non-energetic reactive armor or photo-reactive active camouflage. Like the Ares, the Janus is a fully sealed environment with its own air supply, which allows the tank to operate in vacuum environments, toxic atmospheres, or even underwater.
Shields: Moderately Low
Shields: In order to cut down on costs and ease maintenance, the Janus reuses the same shield generators and systems as found on the S16 Prowler. While not incredibly subpar, this does give the tank less protection than many of its near contempories designed by Yutrane-Tackata.
Propulsion: Moderately High
Propulsion: The Janus reuses much of the Ares' propulsion system, including its main drive system, to cut down on construction and maintenance costs, but the Janus's substantially smaller size makes it much faster than its predecessor, though not faster than the similiarly sized CAVw PX-10. Aside from being cheaper and having lower maintenance costs than repulsorlifts, the treads allow the Janus to work on worlds with unstable electromagnetic fields such as Jabiim, as well as penetrate local and theatre shield generators. Additionally, with its sealed hull, this allows the Janus to crawl underwater at the depths of a typical continental sea shelf.
Weapons: Low
Weapons: The Janus does not carry any fixed primary weapons. Instead, the tank's turret holds a pair of large compartments, like those of the Dhothil starfighter, that a set of weapons can be easily swapped in and out of. Like the Dhothils, these compartments are large so that the bays are large enough to hold both the weapons and an ample supply of ammo for the average engagement. Missile weapon magazines usually take some time reload, which means they tend to be sparingly used in engagements. While KDI and its Irollan partners have designed and produce several weapons systems specifically to fit in these modular compartments, many starfighter or vehicle weapons can be fitted into the modules with some shop work. This allows the various worlds of the Confederation and their commanders to adapt Janus's for a variety of environments and missions. Regardless of the turret weapons, the tank always carries a single light repeating blaster mounted in a retractable mount next to the driver's side. The tank's astromech droid operates this weapon to attack small targets that could threaten the tank such as infantry or missiles. While an almost infinite number of weapons can be mixed into a turret, several of the more common weapons loadouts are listed below (projectile capacity shown is per magazine. Weapons can be reloaded from storage areas in the tank itself).
Aquatic Loadout: 1 KDI Mk I Sonic Cannon, 1 Jenth General Purpose Launcher (4 missiles or 3 torpedoes or 2 heavy rockets or 1 space bomb each)
KDI Mk I Sonic Cannon: The KDI Mk I Sonic Cannon is little more than an enlarged SG-82 Sonic Rifle. Like other sonic weapons, the Mk I generates highly-focused bursts of sonic energy, typically as a concentrated sphere or bolt, to strike or shatter objects with the same power as a heavy blaster cannon. Alternatively, the Mk I can emit a cone of what of a high-pitched wailing noise that typically stuns most organics, making it a useful nonlethal weapon. Because the weapon is roughly equivalent to a heavy blaster cannon, it isn't widely used except on water worlds, where conventional blaster and laser cannon performance is severely hampered.
Jenth General Purpose Launcher: The Jenth is very similar to the Imperial General Warhead Launcher used by the later Tie starfighter models. What separates the two is the Jenth’s size, which is larger than the compact version used by the Empire. The Jenth does not carry any more missiles than the Imperial version, but is larger because it incorporates an odd two-stage bay thruster which not only boosts the rocket into the launcher, but also provides additional thrust for the warhead as it leaves the launcher. This results in improved rate of fire as well as faster warheads. On water worlds, it is frequently loaded with S-4 underwater proton torpedoes instead of normal proton torpedoes in order to attack other watercraft.
Urban Warfare Loadout: 1 Siege Beam Cannon, 1 Sunfire 1000 Flamethrower
Siege Beam Cannon: This heavy weapon fires bursts of highly unstable energy at the target to burn through heavy armor and shielding. Using a complex system of four coordinated anodes, it converts electricity into thermal energy which is then transferred to a beam produced by a miniature particle cannon. The resulting superheated particle beam is quite effective at penetrating thick defences at above average ranges. Unshielded targets are frequently disintegrated. However, it’s low firing rate (due to cooling) along with poor tracking mainly regulate the weapon to destroying stationary and relatively slow-moving ground targets. Janus gunners typically use it to demolish bunkers or destroy threats head-on, but some gunners will work with other Confederate forces to lead enemies into the Beam's destructive path.
Sunfire 1000 Flamethrower: This heavy flamethrower shoots a jet of ignited fuel at short range but with a wide spray. Janus gunners typically use it to cut through swathes of infantry or light vehicles as close range, but it has proven useful against dug-in positions or fortifications.
Standard Loadout: 1 CCA RX-9 Medium Laser Cannon, 1 Fireshard Cannon
CCA RX-9 Medium Laser Cannon: The CCA RX-9 is a fairly standard medium laser cannon, which is moderately more powerful and energy intensive than a standard laser cannon. Unlike most laser cannons, the RX-9 is equipped with a beam splitter module, making its bolts noticeably larger and more likely to penetrate enemy shields at the cost of a slower rate of fire. This weapon is widely used because the weapon is used on the S16 Prowler, which helps simplify logistics.
Fireshard Cannon: Originally an Irollan invention, this heavy weapon uses minute electrothermal charges to vaporize gas to push out its solid-tipped slugs at high speeds. When the slug hits the target, it armor-piercing head penetrates the target, and consequently ignites and releases the thermite flechettes stored within the core of the bullet. Penetration by such an attack results in nearby area being turned into a small, powerful, and slow-burning conflagration. If the attack does not penetrate armor, the flechettes burn away the armor in which they are embedded. The Fireshard is known for having a shorter optimum range than typical laser cannons, but also for having higher rate of fire. Janus gunners typically use it against APCs and other armored targets where the burning flechettes quickly renders the target's environment uninhabitable because of the resulting flames and toxic smoke.
Anti-Aircraft Loadout: 1 Kothil Heavy Ion Cannon, 1 PLX-2M Missile Launcher (8 projectiles)
Kothil Heavy Ion Cannon: A popular weapon among Janus gunners expecting to fight battle droids or high tech vehicles, the Kothil ion cannon uses ion energy to overload and fuse circuitry. However, unlike galactic standard ion cannons, the Kothil automatically adjust itself according to range sensor data from the ship for improved performance. For example, a Kothil will automatically tightbeam an ion bolt fired at a distant target for improved range at the cost of damage, or completely bypass the most of the focusing process for a shorter range, but a greatly improved rate of fire if the target is at near point-blank range. If the Kothil does not have any sensor data, it fires like a normal starfighter-grade heavy ion cannon.
PLX-2M Missile Launcher: This missile launcher has an extended magazine of Arakyd 313 missiles, typically equipped with heat-seeking proton warheads , armor-piercing anti-vehicle shells, specialized bunker-busters, gas-delivery warheads, and GAMs for high-priority targets.
Infantry Support Loadout: 1 Wyren Mk VII Autocannon, 1 MM-s3 Grenade Launcher (50 grenades).
Wyren Mk VII Autocannon: The Wyren autocannon, the latest in Irollan Kingdom weapons technology, has now been pirated by Irollan Reformists and the Confederation . The projectile equivalent to the rest of the galaxy’s autoblaster in terms of role, power, and size, the Wyren inaccurately spews out a large volume of minute, solid slugs, via magnetic accelerators, towards it targets at a very short range. The Mk VII version now incorporates locus coordinators into its mounts which provide improved autotracking for the weapon as well as the ability to load hollow slugs (which can be filled with different payloads as per mission/personal preferences). Common fillers include thermite, to create incendiary effects, and shrapnel, to destroy incoming projectiles or strafe lightly-armored targets.
MM-s3 Grenade Launcher: This semi-automatic grenade launcher typically fire grenades at groups of infantry at up to ranges of 500 meters, but the launcher is capable of inaccurate fire at up to a kilometer. If the Janus does fire this far, it usually blankets the area with explosive grenades. While Janus gunners typically use fragmentation grenades more often than not, the MM-s3 is capable of a variety of speciality grenades, albeit this tend to come in a very limited amount unless the loadout was planned well in advance of the actual combat.
Modular Secondary Shields: As Confederates place a high value on adaptability and maintaining their forces, KDI incorporated a similar modular shield system as the Dhothil starfighter into the tank design. This second set of shields is situated behind the crew compartment with its own power supply. Like the Dhothils, the secondary shields are meant to supplement, not replace, the man shields by providing a focused defense against certain types of attacks. The tank's secondary shields can be focused, dispersed, and otherwise manipulated by the commander or the astromech droid as needed.
Photon Scattering Field: This module produces photons and hi-jacks naturally occurring particles of this nature to form and hold them in a field surrounding the tank, just overlaying the tank’s standard shielding. When this shield is hit by ion and EMP weaponry hit the field, the photon particles interfere and collide with the energized particles, ions, and other radiation, thereby reducing or annulling the effects of those weapons on the tank itself. This module is heavily used when facing Reavers because of the Confederation's prospensity for using area-wide electromagnetic attacks.
Anticoncussion Field Generator: Widely used on Confederate naval vessels, the Anticoncussion field on the Janus is not as powerful, nor does it cost nearly the proportional of energy as used on the Confederate vesels either. The generator creates an umbrella-shaped magnetic field around the tank that absorbs and disperses kinetic energy from oncoming projectiles, much like ray shields work against laser cannons. Like ray shields, the magnetic field eventually will fall under sustained enemy fire.
Heat Dissipation Field: This module creates a complex maze of particles that interlock with the tank’s shields, but also jut in and out of them. When a thermal attack collides with the tank’s shields, this maze of particles acts like a superconductive radiator which uniformly disperses the heat or cold evenly all across the surface area of the tank’s shields; thereby reducing the effects of such weapons. It is commonly used to protect against laser cannons and other like weaponry, or to provide the craft with additional protection for unusually hot environments, such as volcanic worlds or against enemies known for using thermal attacks, such as flamethrowers and some plasma weapons.
Peacetime Role: Tractor
The Janus has front and back mountings on its chassis in order to attach a variety of agricultural and construction implements, allowing it to fulfill the role of a tractor in times of peace. These implements are powered by energy usually allocated for weapon systems during warfare. In less populous worlds, the Janus typically operates as an agricultural tractor, performing such tasks as plowing and roto-tilling fields or pulling combines. Mining worlds typically use the Siege Beam Cannon help create tunnels. On more urbanized worlds, the Janus is more commonly used as supplementary construction vehicle where it sports frontloaders or backhoes.
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