Naut’Yll ‘Upheaver’ Heavy Torpedo

[taalismn]

Naut’Yll ‘Upheaver’ Heavy Torpedo
(aka ‘Squalloc’, ‘Sea-Kraks’)
“Just one of these ####ers can launch a small island into orbit....no wonder they call them ‘Upheavers’. And it’s a wakeup call to us that we have to keep the squid-faces under watch and not underestimate them.”
---Anonymous New Navy officer, after examining a captured Naut’Yll ‘Squalloc’ weapon.

The ‘Upheaver’(or‘Squalloc’’ as it is known in Naut’Yll speech) is a large underwater projectile developed by the Naut’Yll as a ‘clean’, but no less devastating, alternative to nuclear weapons. The Upheaver is intended to deliver a one-thousand pound warhead of mystically-primed Korallyte explosive. The energetic detonation, through a process painstakingly developed by Naut’Yll engineers and Koral-Shapers, of this amount of korallyte has been compared, by one New Navy xenotechnology analyst, to a ‘Krakatoa event’ going off on the seabed, generating massive tidal waves to lash nearby shorelines.
Despite the weapon’s long range and self-guidance, the sheer power of its warhead detonation makes deploying the Upheaver/Squalloc a hazardous matter for Naut’Yll crews charged with making sure the torpedo is delivered accurately to target. The two most likely deployment profiles are to sneak the weapon close to the intended target, send it a short distance to lodge on the seabed near the target area, then sneak away and let the weapon detonate on a timer...or, in the alternative, a suicidal run at the target with the full knowledge that the delivery vessel and crew will not survive the ensuing blast. The Naut’Yll military has also been experimenting with drone systems that would allow the torpedo to slowly creep to the target area (hopefully) undetected, settle to the bottom to wait, then when a certain time has elapsed, or its sensors pick up the movement of a large vessel or opening in harbor defenses, it reactivates its propulsion to make a high speed dash to the target. However, the Naut’Yll lack of expertise in AI systems has hindered developement in this direction.
Because koral does not grow(naturally) on Rifts Earth, the warload filling for these weapons must be transported, with difficulty, via dimensional rift from the Naut’Yll homeworld of Yllera, and their virtually handcrafted construction means they are used sparingly. The Naut’Yll expeditionary forces on Rifts Earth have only acquired a dozen of these weapons that the military reserves for strategic targets, such as the New Navy’s Ticonderoga super-submarine and their bases, or potentially for mining Splugorth port harbors. In fact, the Naut’Yll have already tried to use Upheavers against the New Navy in audacious ambush attempts, but the New Navy managed to foil these attacks, and even acquired at least two Upheaver torpedoes for study. The New Navy in turn has stored these captured weapons for possible use later, as the pseudo-magical nature of their warheads may be more effectve against the Lord of the Deep.

The Upheaver can only be carried and deployed by specially-equipped vehicles; the massive torpedo is too large to fit through the heavy torpedo tubes of the Naut’Ylls’ Red Trident submarines.

The Naut’Yll have also experimented with smaller korallyte explosive warheads able to be carried by their regular torpedoes/missiles. These have proven also proportionately more destructive than conventional explosives, but the Yllera Military Council has decided that a wider use of korallyte ordnance would prove prohibitively expensive, so they have elected to approve their use only for special missions, and continue using conventional explosive fillers for most missiles and torpedoes.

Weight: 2.3 tons
Size: 30 ft long, 3.3 ft diameter
MDC: 260
Range: 30 miles
Speed: 60 knots
Damage: 1,000 lb korallyte warhead: 3d6x10,000 MD to a 0.9 mile radius, 3d6x1,000 to a 3 mile radius beyond that, and 4d6x10 MD out to a 5 mile radius.
Can generate tidal waves that can travel as far as 50 miles, and do damage equivalent to a Water Elemental Tidal Wave spell; waves up to 100 ft high, do 4d6x10 MD, and can travel up to 300 ft inland (the value is somewhat fixed due to the magic nature of the exploding force). Fortunately, only one wave pulse is produced, rather than a succession of strikes.
The explosion does not generate nuclear radiation but, GM’s option, because total material conversion of the koral to energy isn’t complete, there can be the chance of magical particle ‘fallout’ generating ley line storms and disruptions in the local ambient PPE fields.
Rate of Fire: Single shot
Special Features:
*Sonar and Compass Guidance: +3 to strike moving targets within 1,000 ft. Auto-Navigation capability of 80%, but can home in on beacons planted in advance by Naut’Yll commandos.

(Note: This is less a game-usable weapon and more a maguffin for adventures.... This is the Naut’Ylls’ premiere strategic WMD and even the rumor of one being deployed out in the field should be a call for heroes to try to stop their use. As a potential weapon against the Lord of the Deep, the New Navy would be VERY interested in acquiring more if the Naut’Yll can be persuaded to part with them)