The Vortex Parallel Rifts® Megaverse®

Part 1: Extreme Cold and Environmental Armour

Introduction

Ivanova turned to her sergeant, "Martin, you're sure they crossed the river?"
"Yes, Dena. The tracks lead down to the river, then stop. There is evidence of snow disturbance on the other side, but without crossing I can't be 100% sure. Wall also concurs with my analysis".

They had been tracking the Slavers for two days now and this would be the fourth river they had crossed. Ivanova wondered, not for the first time, how they managed to cross the rivers without all the slavers they had in tow dying of hypothermia. For that matter how had they been keeping them alive, especially during the night?

"Ok everyone, you know the drill. Strip the kit off the horses and stack it for Jeremiah to carry across. Make sure the barding goes back on properly. And make sure you all turn your environmental controls on your armour down, we can't afford to lose any more units."

The first river crossing had been a disaster. Three of the environmental control units had failed, due to sudden overload, before they realized what was happening. It was only the Mind Melter's affinity with machines (Telemechanics) and her quick thinking that had saved her and the commando's suits. Luckily, Hartzeig had the same ability and had been able to repair two of the suits by cannibalizing bits from the third damaged suit, and the third suit itself by taking the control unit from Jeremiah's suit. Jeremiah didn't seem affected by the cold and he still unnerved her. What exactly he was she had yet to work out. He appeared human but she knew that wasn't his true form. Some of them had seen it when they sprung the coalition ambush and it was not something she particularly wished to see again.

The snorting of the horses as they were exposed to the cold wind brought her back to her senses and she dismounted. Dropping her backpack to start her kit pile, she began removing the saddle and saddle bags. Next came the barding, first the chest protector, then the head armour, and lastly the body armour. Her horse shied at the sudden cold and she quietened it before removing the thermal blanket. The blanket would go back on after they crossed the river, but for now it had to come off in-order to stay dry. She replaced the main body of the barding and checked that it was fastened securely. Hartzeig would activate the impervious to cold facility when she was ready to cross. She dialed the internal temperature of her armour down to 45oF and shivered as the suit reacted. Both squads were now ready to cross, B squad would go first with A squad providing covering fire if necessary. Once they were across and had sorted the horses out, then A squad and the packhorses would follow. All in all this crossing like the last would cost them two hours and another 8 miles on their quarry.

"Dena",
"Yes Martin what is it?"
The Sergeant was on point as usual.
"We've possibly got trouble. Looks like they've picked up another vehicle, probably a Mountaineer ATV by the tracks. Com". Dahm! What now? The commed message was interrupted by Dena's suit alarm. She checked the comp readout on the wrist display, "Warning, E-Clip charge low. Systems failure in 3 minutes". Pulling another clip from her webbing she reached behind her and unplugged the discharged clip from the power control unit. All her readouts went dead. She swapped the dead clip for the new one and rammed it home. "Environmental systems re-initializing, outside temperature one degree Celsius, wind speed 20 mph, wind chill 3 degrees Celsius, internal temperature seventeen point six degrees Celsius, set internal temperature 18.4 degrees Celsius, On-board computer re-initializing". Dena silenced the internal check sequence. "Sorry Martin, say again please"
"Problem?"
"No just the E-Clip for the suit systems running out"
"Yea, know the feeling, mine went about 10 minutes ago. Anyway we may have a problem, looks like they've gained a Mountaineer ATV. Tracks come in from the East, join the main group and then continue. Do you want us to back-track it?"
"How far ahead of us are they?"
"Not sure. These tracks look to be about 12 hours old. Assuming they're following the same pattern as us then they'd be about 10 miles ahead"
"No, we'll press on. With luck we'll catch them before night fall and before the storm hits"

Vlassel smiled to himself, it had been a reasonably good trip, all apart from the loss of the Overlord. The raid had gone very much according to plan, until the borg and his two friends appeared. How they had been missed he didn't know but the Overlord took the full force of their initial attack. If the borg hadn't had one of those German rail guns then he might have survived. Still look on the bright side, he had one himself now.

Something wet landed in his face. That’s all we need. He shivered. Even with the Torc he was still cold. He scanned the local area. It was starting to snow quite heavily. The Altarans had pulled their cloaks about them and didn't look pleased. He knew the snow would foul their senses. At least the Kittani in their power armour would be unaffected. He spoke into his com and the Samson power armour pilot moved to intercept the flagging slave. Raising the slave prod he jabbed the unfortunate slave who screamed and fell. "Get back in line or you'll get another one". Vlassel smiled again, it was so amusing watching slaves inflict punishment on their own kind. He had hoped to run into another patrol of natives, as native warriors were bringing top dollar in the market at the moment. Still something would turn up to host the eight zombitrons he'd reserved.

"Lord Vlassel", it was one of the Kittani Serpents.
"Yes?"
"We're being followed. There's a group of something closing on us. They're moving slightly faster than us, probably natives on horses."
"Investigate". The two Kittani Serpents peeled off from the convoy and turned in the direction they'd come, as did two of the observation eyes. Vlassel slewed the barge out of the path of the convoy, which was busy reorganizing itself. The Mountaineer roared past him as it now took point. The Altarans were busy belting their cloaks out of the way, their torcs now clearly visible round their necks. The Creax was now behind the slaves and he moved the barge to fall in behind it.

Wind Chill and Environmental Armour

Travel in winter has never been easy. Apart from the problems caused by snow and ice, there is the cold, especially the cold from a wind that blows over a frozen landscape. Cold is the biggest killer in winter, especially prolonged exposure (See Rifts World Book 20: CanadaTM). You would think that in the world of Rifts putting on a suit of environmental body armour would be all that is required but this is not the case. All environmental body armour has

Now all bar the last one of these requires power but nowhere does it state "independent nuclear power supply", after all its not power armour. It must therefore be assumed that environmental body armour must run from E-clips as the alternative of a built-in rechargeable battery would make its extended use in the wilderness impossible. So how long does an E-clip last? Well that depends on the suit's usage and its surrounding environment. Again referring to Rifts:Canada prolonged exposure to extremes of temperature can result in failure of the environmental systems. So how long is prolonged and what are the extremes. Unfortunately this is where Rifts:Canada falls down. What follows is a suggested set of rules for the use of environmental and power armour in extreme conditions. Before we can consider what is extreme we need to define what is normal. Humans are comfortable in the temperature range 10oC (50oF) to 26oC (80oF) so any environmental system must be able to maintain this range within the normal range of temperatures encountered. If we assume temperate through tropical temperatures to be normal then our working range would be -6oC (21oF) to 40oC (104oF). This means our extremes are below -6oC and above 40oC in still air and below 10% humidity. Since the prime purpose of this article is dealing with the cold we don't need to worry about humidity, as once the temperature drops below 0oC (32oF) the humidity drops too nearly zero. This just leaves us to worry about wind chill and immersion in water. Wind Chill is the removal of heat caused by the flow of air. The faster the flow the greater the cooling effect. Some rules for wind chill appeared in Rifts:Canada but these don't reflect the fact that the actual wind chill is dependant on the ambient air temperature. There is also the problem that materials don't cool in the same way that a human body does. The table below is a reproduction of the table published in November 2001 by National Weather Service in the USA.

Calm 40F/
 4C		 35F/
 1C		 30F/
 -1C		 25F/
 -3C		 20F/
-6C		 15F/
 -9C		 10F/
 -12C		 5F/
 -15C		 0F/
 -18C		 -5F/
 -21C		 -10F/
 -23C		 -15F/
 -26C		 -20F/
-29C		 -25F/
 -32C		 -30F/
 -34C		 -35F/
 -37C		 -40F/
 -40C		 -45F/
-43C
5 36 31 25 19 13 7 1 -5 -11 -16 -22 -28 -34 -40 -46 -52 -57 -63
10 34 27 21 15 9 3 -4 -10 -16 -22 -28 -35 -41 -47 -53 -59 -66 -72
15 32 25 19 13 6 0 -7 -13 -19 -26 -32 -39 -45 -51 -58 -64 -71 -77
20 30 24 17 11 4 -2 -9 -15 -22 -29 -35 -42 -48 -55 -61 -68 -74 -81
25 29 23 16 9 3 -4 -11 -17 -24 -31 -37 -44 -51 -58 -64 -71 -78 -84
30 28 22 15 8 1 -5 -12 -19 -26 -33 -39 -46 -53 -60 -67 -73 -80 -87
35 28 21 14 7 0 -7 -14 -21 -27 -34 -41 -48 -55 -62 -69 -76 -82 -89
40 27 20 13 6 -1 -8 -15 -22 -29 -36 -43 -50 -57 -64 -71 -78 -84 -91
45 26 19 12 5 -2 -9 -16 -23 -30 -37 -44 -51 -58 -65 -72 -79 -86 -93
50 26 19 12 4 -3 -10 -17 -24 -31 -38 -45 -52 -60 -67 -74 -81 -88 -95
55 25 18 11 4 -3 -11 -18 -25 -32 -39 -46 -54 -61 -68 -75 -82 -89 -97
60 25 17 10 3 -4 -11 -19 -26 -33 -40 -48 -55 -62 -69 -76 -84 -91 -98
                                     
    Frostbite Times      30 minutes      10 minutes      5 minutes      

Table 1 NWS Standard Wind Chill Index

Calm 35F/
 1C 		30F/
 -1C 		25F/
 -3C 		20F/
-6C 		15F/
 -9C 		10F/
 -12C 		5F/
 -15C 		0F/
 -18C 		-5F/
 -21C 		-10F/
 -23C 		-15F/
 -26C 		-20F/
 -29C 		-25F/
 -32C 		-30F/
 -34C 		-35F/
 -37C 		-40F/
 -40C 		-45F/
 -43C
5 35 30 25 20 14 8 2 -3 -8 -14 -19 -25 -31 -36 -41 -47 -52
10 35 30 25 20 14 7 1 -5 -10 -16 -22 -27 -33 -39 -44 -50 -56
15 35 30 25 20 13 6 0 -6 -12 -17 -23 -29 -34 -40 -46 -52 -58
20 35 30 25 19 13 5 -1 -7 -13 -18 -24 -30 -36 -42 -47 -53 -59
25 35 30 25 19 12 4 -2 -8 -13 -19 -25 -31 -37 -43 -48 -54 -60
30 35 30 24 18 12 4 -2 -8 -14 -20 -26 -32 -38 -44 -49 -55 -61
35 35 30 24 18 12 4 -3 -9 -15 -21 -27 -33 -39 -45 -50 -56 -62
40 35 30 23 17 12 3 -3 -9 -15 -21 -28 -34 -39 -46 -51 -57 -63
45 35 29 23 17 11 3 -4 -0 -16 -22 -28 -34 -40 -46 -51 -58 -64
50 35 29 22 17 11 3 -4 -0 -16 -22 -29 -35 -40 -47 -52 -58 -65
55 34 29 22 17 11 2 -5 -1 -17 -23 -29 -35 -41 -47 -52 -59 -66
60 34 29 22 16 11 2 -5 -2 -17 -23 -30 -36 -42 -48 -53 -60 -67

Table 2 Armour Wind Chill Index

Table 2 shows the wind chill index for environmental armour. The environmental systems of most suits of armour are designed to maintain the internal temperature between 45F and 85F based upon an external temperature of between 20F and 104F, ie they can raise the temperature by a maximum of 50F or lower it by 45F. The closer the environmental systems run to their maximum tolerance then the more power they drain and the greater their chance of failure.

Wind Speed 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 50+
0 72/1 70/1 68/1 66/1 63/1 60/1 57/1 54/1 48/2 40/3 30/5 18/11
5 72/1 70/1 68/1 66/1 63/1 60/1 57/1 54/1 48/2 40/3 30/5 18/11
10 70/1 68/1 66/1 64/1 61/1 58/1 55/2 52/2 46/3 39/4 29/6 17/15
15 68/1 66/1 64/1 62/1 59/2 56/2 53/2 51/2 45/3 37/4 28/6 17/15
20 64/2 62/2 60/2 59/2 56/2 53/2 51/2 48/3 43/4 35/5 27/8 16/20
25 60/2 59/2 57/2 55/2 53/2 50/2 48/2 45/3 40/4 33/5 25/8 15/20
30 57/2 55/2 54/2 52/2 50/2 47/2 45/3 43/4 38/5 32/6 24/11 14/25
35 53/2 52/2 50/2 49/2 47/3 44/3 42/3 40/4 35/5 30/6 22/11 13/31
40 48/3 47/3 45/3 44/3 42/3 40/3 38/4 36/5 32/6 27/8 20/15 12/38
45 43/3 42/3 41/3 39/3 38/4 36/4 34/5 32/6 29/8 24/11 18/20 11/47
50 38/4 37/4 36/4 35/4 33/5 32/5 30/6 29/8 25/11 21/15 16/25 9/57
55 31/5 30/5 29/5 28/5 27/6 26/6 24/8 23/11 21/15 17/20 13/31 8/69
60 22/6 22/6 21/6 20/6 19/8 19/8 18/11 17/15 15/20 12/25 9/38 5/84
65+ 11/8 11/8 11/8 10/8 10/11 10/11 9/15 9/20 8/25 6/31 5/48 3/98

Table 3 E-Clip Duration and Environmental System Failure Percentage

To determine how long an E-Clip lasts and the chance of environmental systems failure consult table 3. The table quotes 2 figures, the length of time an E-Clip will last and the cumulative chance of systems failure. For each 5DC of the suit, in minutes, that the suit is exposed make an environmental systems failure roll.

For example Jed the dogboy is travelling in Coalition Deadboy light armour. The outside temperature (ignoring wind) is 37F and the average wind speed is 25mph. Jed has his suit to maintain an internal temperature of 60F. The wind chill index to the suit's systems is 37F, thus it is operating at a 25F difference. The E-Clip will thus last 50 hours with a cumulative chance of failure of 2%. The suit's DC and the length of time Jed has been travelling determine the actual chance of failure. Jed has been travelling for 4 hours (240 minutes) and his suit has 250 DC. This means that there is a 10% (2%*240/(250/5)=2%*240/50=2%*4.8) chance of systems failure. If the temperature dropped to 20F and the wind increased to 35mph then the E-Clip would only last 30 hours and every 50 minutes the chance of systems failure would increase by 6%.

When applying the rules to power armour treat the ambient temperature as 5F higher and the winds speed as 5mph less.

Water is a considerably better conductor of heat than air, 25-30 times better in fact. This means that immersion in water kills faster and places a far greater strain on the environmental systems than wind chill does. The easiest way of handling water without the creation of more tables is to treat water as air that has an ambient temperature 20F lower than in reality and that is moving 10mph faster; ie still water at 40F is treated as air at 20F moving at 10mph. In addition multiply the chance of systems failure by 3.

The other problem with water occurs when sudden immersion takes place. The shock to the body of sudden immersion in cold water can kill instantly. Any non-MDC being not in environmental body armour must save vs Lethal Poison (14 or higher with appropriate PE bonuses) or suffer a heart attack. If they survive the shock then make the HF roll as per Rifts:Canada to avoid panicking. Whilst a character in environmental armour is initially safe the environmental system isn't. The chance of immediate systems failure is 5 times the base chance for the temperature difference based on a 20mph wind; eg Jed has to cross a river. The water is moving at about 15mph and is 35F. When Jed enters the water the actual water temperature as far as the environmental system is concerned is 12F. Jed still has the suit set to 60F meaning a temperature difference of 48F (50F on the table). The immediate chance of system failure is therefore 40%. If the water had been colder or the internal temperature of the suit higher, then the chance of failure would have been 100%! Once Jed is in the water there is a 40% chance cumulative that the environmental systems will fail for each 50 minutes he is there.

If the environmental system fails roll on the table below to determine the severity of failure. The roll is modified by the chance of failure at the time the failure occurred. When rolling due to sudden immersion in water use the base chance before multiplication.

Roll Result
01-05 Minor Systems Failure. System continues to run. Use column 5F higher from now on. Field repair possible in 30+2D6 minutes.
06-25 Minor Systems Failure. Field repair possible in 2D6 minutes allowing system to continue running but use column 10F higher. Full repair requires replacement components equal in cost 1D4x5% of environmental system cost and takes 30+1D4+1x10 minutes
26-55 Moderate Systems Failure. Field repair possible in 30+1D4x10 minutes but requires components equal in cost to 1D4x5% of environmental system cost. System will then run but use column 20F higher. Full repair requires replacement components equal in cost 2D4+1x5% of environmental system cost and takes 60+1D4+1x30 minutes
56-95 Major System Failure. Field repair possible in 30+1D4x30 minutes but requires components equal in cost 2D4+2x5% of environmental system cost. System will then run but use column 35F higher. Full repair requires replacement components equal in cost 1D6+2x10% of environmental system cost and takes 2D6 hours.
96+ Total System burnout. Replace the entire control system! System replacement takes 2D6+1 hours.

Environmental systems cost between 35% and 50% of the base price for the armour. Add 5% for Coalition armour unless in Coalition territory.

If the environmental system fails then the suit at least provides some insulation and slows the rate of cooling. The time it takes to cool 10F depends upon the DC of the suit and the wind speed. If the suit is immersed in water treat the water speed as a wind speed 20mph higher.

DC 150 175 200 225 250 275 300 325 350 375 400 750+
Calm 27 33 39 45 50 55 60 65 75 85 95 240
5 27 33 39 44 50 55 60 65 73 82 92 225
10 26 32 38 44 49 54 59 64 72 81 90 220
15 26 31 37 42 47 52 57 62 70 78 87 214
20 25 30 36 41 46 51 55 60 68 76 85 207
25 23 29 34 39 43 48 52 56 64 72 80 196
30 22 27 32 36 41 45 49 53 60 68 75 184
35 21 25 30 34 38 42 46 50 56 63 71 173
40 19 23 27 31 35 38 42 45 51 58 64 157
45 17 21 24 28 31 35 38 41 46 52 58 142
50 14 17 20 24 26 29 32 34 39 44 49 119
55 11 13 16 18 20 22 25 27 30 34 38 92
60 7 8 10 11 13 14 16 17 19 21 24 58
60+ 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 10 12 13 15 36

The Legal Bit
Rifts®, Megaverse®, and Rifts Books® are registered trademarks owned and licensed by Kevin Siembieda and rifts Books, Inc.
© 2002 Kevin Siembieda; © 2002 Palladium Books®, All rights reserved world wide.
No part of this work may be reproduced in part or whole, in any form or by any means, without permission from the publisher.
All incidents, situations, institutions, governments and people are fictional and any similarity to characters or persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.