WZMS:  Infantry

    The infantry  is one of the most important segments of our military.  A relatively small group of volunteers given the best equipment modern technology has to offer must land on a world, root the enemy out and destroy them.  A Regimental Combat Team has 2,853 infantrymen.  An RCT is expected to conquer the average world alone.  Nearly three thousand troopers are asked to do a job that would formerly have taken millions.  Every single rifleman today is more powerful than a squadron, platoon, or company of soldiers in the past.  A single Weirdtrooper could annhilate a Roman legion and completely rout a second.

    Infantry armor is made possible with more advanced forms of durashell, the armor composite of choice in the thirty-first century.  These durashell alloys are extremely resilient on small scales, much stronger than comparative vehicle armors.  However, for vehicle-scale armor, these alloys become surprisingly brittle as their molecular bonds are stretched and stressed.

THE WEIRDTROOPERS

     The standard infantryman of the Weirdo Zone is the Weirdtrooper.  He (or she) is expected to be one of the most versatile troopers in history.  Carrying a self-contained environment with him, the Weirdtrooper can fight in any terrain, be it the glittering fields of an ice world, the soupy earth of lava worlds or the vacuum of space.  He is trained not only in the use of standard weapons, but support, long-ranged and heavy weapons as well. He can be given a jump-pack for superior mobility. He is trained in the use of melee weapons and can be armed with energized battle blades of varying types.  Weirdtroopers have a wide array of equipment availiable to them, from energy rifles, energized projectile weapons, plasma flamers, and missile launchers to jet packs and antigravity belts.  One of the most versatile pieces in a Weirdtrooper's expansive arsenal is his armor.

    His Mark III/23 Moderately Powered Carapace Armor (MPCA) is the standard armor suit of the Weirdo Zone.  It is made up of sixteen-piece suit of heavy durashell armor plating that provides protection to his hands, forearms, shoulders, upper and lower torsos, the crotch, the lower legs and the feet.  Underneath this armor plating is a second suit of silver-gray chainmesh made of energy absorbing-and-channeling electrium alloy that protects his entire body.  Mounted in a blister in the back of the torso armor is a plasma/photonic shield generator that generates a bubble of high-velocity, high-energy particles around the Weirdtrooper.  His fist and forearm armor are laced with powerful shield generators, allowing them to be used as melee weapons in a fistfighting fashion.  His battle helmet has a visor which protects his eyes from the glare of magnesium flares and photon pulsars and gives him vital combat information through displays projected on them.  The blsters on the sides of his helmet contain advanced communications and sensor equipment as his antennae are broad-band omnidirectional communications and sensor spires.  Although the armor is normally white, it is equipped with optical camouflage that makes it blend with the terrain.   A microfusion reactor provides nearly endless power for all of these systems.

    MPCA is also powered to multiply a trooper's strength tenfold.   The internal layer of the chainmesh armor is made of pressure sensors and myomer/chainmesh 'muscles' which flex under electrical current.  An average trooper (after Basic Training gets through with him) can lift over a ton, while MPCA is so strong it can withstand the massive pressure of up to fifty tons with no injury to the wearer.

    A Weirdtrooper is usually armed with a APR-34 Lasbolter Rifle automatic energized projectile rifle.  Energized projectiles are the preferred weapon because the connection to a limited ammunition supply is offset by the inability of shielding or energy reactive armor to offset and ignore projectiles by modifing harmonics and resonance (with energy weapons, shield harmonics can be modified to nullify the energy weapon's effect).  Using a series of powerful electromagnets, the Lasbolter instantaneously charges and propels each round to semi-relativistic speeds.  The APR-34 has an effective range of 1,500 meters but the projectile loses its charge after about 1,250 m.   It can penetrate 10mm of standard durashell or 300mm of steel at maximum range.  The magazine acts as both ammunition source and rechargable power supply, containing enough rounds and power for 150 shots (needle rounds) or 50 shots (larger, special-case munitions).  The Lasbolter can be set to single fire or burst fire (3 rounds per depression of trigger).  Once the ammunition is depleted, the Lasbolter Rifle can fire defensive energy bolts with an effective range of 50m.

Support duties are achieved with underslung weaponry mounted under the barrel of the APR-34 Lasbolter Rifle.   Medium ranged (500 m) armor-piercing and indirect fire support is achieved with the AUSGL-4 Grenade Launcher.  It is a semiautomatic weapon capable of firing specialized munitions or standard grenades either electromagnetically or chemically.  It replaces the AGL-3 stand-alone Grenade Launcher.       Short ranged (20m) area-effect support is accomplished with the AUSPF-32 Plasma Flamer.  It uses atmospheric air to create the superheated plasma it uses to torch enemies.  With an infinite ammunition supply and near-infinite energy reserves, it can be fired continuously.  Special emergency cut-off switches prevent the unlikely occurences of overheating and overloads.  It replaces the APF-31 stand-alone Plasma Destroyer.     Long ranged (2,000m) energy weapon support is what the AUSBR-66 Blazer is for.  It is infinitely modifiable to fire in any range of the EM radiation spectrum and can be set to fire either with a continuous beam or automatic pulse fire.  The AUSBR-66 is popular as a sniper weapon due to its silent and invisible fire.  It replaces the ABR-65 Blazer Rifle.	APR-34 w/ AUSGL-4 APR-34 w/ AUSPF-32 APR-34 w/ AUSBR-66
Sergeants and troops on assault duties often carry AES-9 "Thresher" energized swords into battle to supplement their energized battle fists.  Its energized qualities allow it to slice through shield and armor with relative ease.	AES-9 "Thresher"
Most Weirdtroopers are also armed with an ALAW-23 "Panzerfaust" anti-armor disposable missile launcher in missions where heavy enemy units are expected.  It has an effective range of 2,000m and can penetrate up to 1m of durashell at maximum range.  It fires a guided warhead and is appropriate for surface-to-air as well as surface-to-ground capabilities.	ALAW-23 "Panzerfaust"

THE WEIRDANNHILATORS

     The elite infantry units are the Weirdannihilators, more commonly known as the Mobile Infantry.  They are the ultimate fighting force, trained to strike quickly with surgical precision.  Only what needs to be done is done, all else is left and ignored.  These troopers have been hardened in battle as Weirdtroopers and each is given more individual freedom to accomplish the mission.   Mobile Infantry seven-man squads often expand into a diffuse pack of lone wolves covering square kilometers of a combat zone in a small amount of time.  They carry enough weaponry to destroy small countries and are more powerful than a batallion of twenty-first century tanks.

    They wear Mark V/55 Heavy Flight Capable Powered Combat Armor (HFCPCA), extraordinary battle armor made completely of reinforced durashell that is equipped with flamers, grenade launchers, rocket launchers, energy weapons, automatic energized projectile weapons, energized fists, and jump jets. They are extremely powerful and used in the toughest missions. Weirdannihilators are extremely well-trained, and can heft their bulky armor as if it was massless.  It also enhances the strength of the user fifty-fold and can take three hundred tons of pressure.  A melee combat between Weirdannihilators and tanks or even small walkers is a sight to see.  Mobile Infantrymen pick up fifty-ton tanks and throw them a few meters, get together to flip super-heavy tanks onto their sides or roll them completely over, and knock the legs out of medium walkers.  Their small size makes them a hard target, as does their optical camouflage.  Many troopers prefer to ignore the optical camo and spend their down-time painting camouflage onto their suits before each mission, customizing the paint scheme for each new terrain they fight.

    Although fully capable of all-out front-line combat, Weirdannihilators prefer to use stealth to pounce on their enemy. If detected, however, they have enough firepower to mow down anything in the way.  HFCPCA has a special cord system to retrieve "dropped" weapons so the trooper not be concerned with holstering or holding all of these weapons.

Weirdannihilators are usually armed with AGPAC-45 "Deathdealer" energized projectile gatling autocannons with built-in AHER-22 Heavy Blazers.  The AGPAC-45 has an effective range of 2,000 meters but the bolts lose their charge after about 1,500 meters.  Its four barrels pump out 300 rounds a minute, while its drum clip carries 3,000 rounds (standard needle) or 1,000 rounds (larger special-case munitions).  A belt feed can be attached to large ammunition cases carried on the trooper's back.  The AHER-22 Heavy Blazer has an effective range of 2,500m and is amazingly powerful.

AGPAC-45 / AHER-22 "Deathdealer" combo

They are additionally armed with AGL-7 microgrenade launchers capable of firing anitmatter rounds and flame pills on each forearm.  The AGL-7 has an effective range of 700m in direct fire.   Antimatter rounds can penetrate up to 3m of durashell.  Flame pills coat a 10 square meter area with neonapalm.  The neonapalm is lit by the spark of the flame pill exploding     Two AHFT-108 heavy flamethrower pistols.  With an effective range of 10m, they are not much more than close-quarters weapons.  They shoot streams of neonapalm at the target, traditionally lighted by a pilot light.  A popular close combat weapon, it is fed by small, heavily armored tanks on the trooper's back.     AHML-55 heavy missile launchers for the shoulders.  A trooper can carry up to two of these for long range strikes.  An AHML-55 can fire a variety of missile types.  High-explosive missiles penetrate 100mm of durashell and are more effective against massed armored infantry.  Antimatter missiles penetrate 5m of durashell and are multipurpose.  The dreaded Singularity Missiles can penetrate 10m of any substance and irradiate anything within a kilometer.  Each missile has a 5,000m effective range.

AGL-7 AHFT-108 AHML-55

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