Based on the old R.D.F. designed detachable pilot's compartment, it can actually detach while the craft is in flight, and small wings will fold out. The pod can then be flown like a very heavy glider to about 100 feet off the ground, where the pilot can elect to deploy a parachute to take it the rest of the way to the ground, bail out, or even ride it out the rest of the way (for a hard landing, and risking the craft will land on it's canopy, making escape impossible). The pod WILL float (and is automatically self-righting the water).
Name: Gardu Escape Pod
Model Type: Escape Pod
Class: Pod
Crew: None; Escape Pod
M.D.C. By Location:Main Body-
Wings (2)- | 150
50 each | Reinforced Pilots Compartment- | 200 | | Speed and Statistical Data: | Flying: Does not actually "fly" per se; Makes a slow decent in preparation for a hard emergency landing.
Range In The Air: No known limit; A skilled pilot COULD use thermals, winds, and etc. to stay up possibly as long as they want. However, the current record is 15 hours, at a distance of 2,000 miles, set by SE2 AUSTIN on 22 Mar 2,042 during test flights.
Surfaced On The Water: Per sea state; Goes with the currents a little bit, but is more heavily controlled by winds. Can be steered A LITTLE BIT. Additionally, a collapsible oar is included.
Range On The Surface: No known limit
Underwater: Not possible; Will not sink. However, during hard at-sea landings, they are known to plunge as much as 20 feet.
Height: 10 feet | Width: 15.1 feet
Length: 21 feet
Weight: 1.1 tons
Cargo: None
Power System: Batteries with 24 hours of useful life. Emergency solar cells are also included, but require about 15 minutes to set up and reveals the pod's location to anyone who would like to know.
Flight Systems:
Primary: Aero-Foils (2)
Secondary: Parachutes (3)
Cost and Availability: Unknown
Black Market Cost and Availability: Unknown
| | Weapons Systems:None: The Escape pod is not armed in any way. They do have a self destruct device, but the blast area will not even reach beyond the skin of the craft. In a kamikaze attack, it will do about 2D8 MD to a 16 cubic foot area of the target. Note that this action is NOT authorized, and will automatically kill the pilot. | | Features: | - Radar: Civilian grade radar. Range 100 miles, can track up to 2,500 individual targets. 90% reliability (5% against unfriendly stealthed vehicles).
- FLIR/SLIR: Forward and Side Looking Infrared. Allows pilot to get visuals on targets at night.
- Loudspeaker: Amplifies voice 1 to 100 times. 100' in normal crowds.
- Full range optic sensory suite: Infrared, ultra violet, Magnification, night sight, color filters, thermal imager. Range is about 200 miles for MOST sensors.
- Homing Beacon: Sends out a signal every hour on Channel 16 (155.05 MHZ), alerting anyone listening there is someone in distress, as well as transmitting on Channel 15 (155.10 MHZ) to allow tracking equipment to triangulate. The Invid cannot detect these signals; However, Human collaborators CAN.
| - XTNDR RADAR/Radio Antenna Extender: A simple, 2 cubic foot helium balloon lofts a 10 lb. pod 100' into the air. Hanging from this payload is a fiber-optic cable that relays the data collected from the XTNDR Pod to the vehicle's computers. Note that using this system under heavy foliage will allow the radar, etc to work there, at no penalties, but it will not break the canopy either. The pod must be MANUALLY removed.
- M.D.C. By Location:
- Pod: 50
- Fiber Optic Cable: 10
- Effect: Extends range of any sensors 10 times (or defeats other penalties in a 5 mile area).
| Combat Bonuses from Gardu Frame Unit Escape Pod Combat Elite:- 1 attack per melee (plus those of the pilot).
- +6 Dodge.
- +2 Roll.
- Note that the pilot is pretty well restricted to dodge and roll with impact only, unless s/he plans a Kamikaze run.
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