REPAIR Equipment
Equipment
Repair personnel make use of a variety of equipment to carry out their missions. Each of these, even the most ubiquitous tech such as their suits, is the bleeding-edge of humanity's technological achievements. Each piece of equipment is continuously updated and frequently subjected to modification for certain groups of personnel or individuals, so appearances can differ greatly.
REPAIR Superalloy_Polymer Hazmat Coating [SAP_HC]
Commonly referred to simply as the REPAIR Suit, it is technically not an article of clothing but an applied layer of superalloys arranged into highly-flexible polymer material similar to latex in terms of textile properties. The SAP-HC technology is intended to be an expendable coating over the non-mechanical body parts of REPAIR personnel. The suit acts as a buffer to M2 infection for areas which cannot be jettisoned from the body the way purely-robotic cybernetics can be. In practice, this means REPAIR personnel apply SAP-HC coatings to their torsos and any organic or synthetic limbs, ultimately resembling a leotard or catsuit depending on the individual.
To apply the coating, REPAIR personnel stand on a platform where a ring of material passes upwards around their bodies. The ring prints the SAP-HC coating onto their non-robotic surfaces. Once the SAP-HC suit is applied, a second pass is performed by various robotic arms which proceed to 3D-print diagnostic and sensory circuits into the suit material. The resulting suit can relay some sensations and report on its integrity as a result of these inlaid circuits.
Exoskeleton Projects
Repair R&D personnel are constantly experimenting, and major focus is being placed on the development of powered exoskeletons which can keep up with and enhance the actions of Agents. Rather than solid frames with motors, such exoskeleton suits attempt to maintain as much of the Agent's acrobatic flexibility as possible. As such, they commonly consist of some hard, articulated structural elements connected together by multiple mutually-supporting electro-fibre muscle bundles. The suits will almost-invariably be further armoured with plates across their surfaces.
These exoskeleton suits are highly desired for their potential to grant Agents much heavier firepower, but to date all prototypes have required the exoskeletons to be hand-tailored to the individual Agent's exact physical dimensions and performance characteristics. The result is that the suits require almost artisanal care from the engineers of REPAIR's R&D department.
Weaponry
When the Machina were first fought at Saturn, it was quickly realized that the weapons in humanity's then-current inventory were wholly inadequate. Coilgun and railgun technology advanced dramatically over the course of the Saturn campaign, and when REPAIR was founded, the organization's first actions involved miniaturizing such weapons until the cyborg women of REPAIR could fight with them as though they were conventional small-arms. While there are some specialist weapons, the majority of REPAIR's weaponry consists of the 20mm carbine, the 30mm battle rifle, and the 50mm anti-materiel railgun. A program exists to create a sidearm with the necessary stopping power, but such weapons are often stuck in the prototype stage. Lastly, there are some directed-energy weapons, but they too have issues preventing their wider use.
20mm 'Carbine' Coilgun
The most common weapon used by all REPAIR personnel at some point in their service, the 20mm Carbine utilizes the same operating mechanisms as the ubiquitous 20mm crew-served heavy machine gun operated by UOA infantry. In the hands of REPAIR personnel, it is a weapon suitable for rapid-paced combat and tight quarters, with just enough power to harm the majority of Category 3 Machina. Each shot from this automatic firearm is counterbalanced internally, yet the recoil is severe enough that non-REPAIR personnel would very likely shatter their arm and shoulder bones. REPAIR personnel are universally upgraded to perform controlled automatic fire with this weapon. The ammunition for this weapon is fed into the gun via a detachable magazine, and when fired contains approximately the same force as the kinetic energy projectiles of an Abrams' 120mm cannon. Despite the weapons' strengths, some personnel dislike the Carbine due to the fact that individually, each bullet merely wounds the majority of Category 3 Machina. For this reason, more powerful weapons were developed.
30mm 'Battle Rifle' Coilgun
The Battle Rifle was developed in response to the increasing frequency of Category 3 Machina who have been Blessed by their Queens. These Machina are much more durable than their sisters, and will ignore Carbines entirely. REPAIR developed the semi-automatic Battle Rifle to provide Agents with the ability to accurately hit these Blessed Machina in vulnerable areas to hopefully destroy them before they ruin everyone's day, as far as the humans are concerned. The weapon can reliably disable basic Category 3 Machina in a few shots, but the increased size and recoil as well as its decreased rate of fire are disadvantages that must be considered by Agents operating the weapon.
50mm Anti-Materiel ('AM') Railgun
The 50mm AM Railgun was developed by shrinking down the main armament of the UOA's armoured vehicles, rather than adapting the firing mechanisms of the UOA's HMGs. The AM Railgun is a colossal beast of a weapon; up to 150 cm long overall and too heavy for a pair of soldiers to carry, let along ready for firing. REPAIR Agents wielding this weapon do so knowing full well this manually-cycled monster demands careful positioning and aim. When used incorrectly, the weapon may leave its user unable to fire follow-up shots in time, or overheat its rails with too much use. However, the AM Railgun is perfectly capable of disabling Blessed Category 3 Machina, and is the only weapon an Agent can carry that will wound Queens. As a result, Agents who equip this weapon are regarded with equal amounts of awe and bewilderment, as while the risks are massive, one cannot argue too much when the weapon is capable of giving Category 4 Queen-class Machina pause for thought.
Sidearms
A number of projects within REPAIR are attempting to make weapons which are more portable than the Carbine, yet still retain the Carbine's basic ability to damage Category 3 Machina. Several weapons have made it to the prototype stages and are issued for field-testing by experienced Agents, but invariably problems arise with these weapons which prevents their wider use. Several oversized pistols reminiscent of the old-world Desert Eagle exist, as do attempts to revive the submachinegun concept in this age of coilguns and Machina. Agents are individually selected, often by the Rank A leader of the weapon project, to carry and test such sidearms. As a result, whilst their shortcomings are often numerous, Agents find themselves jealously regarding their comrades who do get selected for such an experimental weapon.
Directed-Energy Weapons
Similar to the sidearm programs, REPAIR engineers are always working on new weapon systems to counter the Machina's staggering durability. Laser weapons are promising, as they are able to utilize pulsed beams to blast away the ultra-dense Machinium of a Machina's casings. Similarly, weapons that rely on magnetically containing and directing plasma beams exist too. The downsides to these weapons are almost always that they are large and grossly power-hungry. In addition, Machina casings adapt quicker to directed-energy weapons after first exposure, while it is much harder for their casings to become more resilient to kinetic damage from magnetically accelerated projectiles. This does not deter the engineers of REPAIR, who still develop and issue these experimental prototypes to the best Agents for intensive live-combat research.
