the Pogo Ballistic Battle Ball
Created by the mechanical genius of Fred 7, the Crimson Guardsman who posed as Cobra's Commander for a time, the Pogo Ballistic Battle Ball can be used to leap about a battlefield with seemingly reckless ability, applying ordnance to and fro as its operator deems fit.
Achieved via short-burst rockets and powerful springs bolstered by pneumatics, the Pogo Ballistic Battle Ball's mobility makes it singularly difficult to defeat in battle - but just as difficult to utilize effectively. The Pogo Battle Ball has these characteristics:
| Handling RV 6 |
Velocity RV 500 |
Durability RV 20 |
Protection RV 20 |
Clam Shell Canopy: this tinted, ballistics-resistant clam shell canopy is a transparent dome surrounding the Pogo Ballistic Battle Ball's operator, giving them a complete view of the surroundings it will be leaping and firing through, and provides most of the vehicle's Protection.
Communications Array: the Pogo Ballistic Battle Ball is equipped with a powerful radio transceiver, allowing it to communicate with like equipment. It works with rank value 10 ability, having a 25 mile range on the ground, or up to a 50 mile range when careening through the air.
HOBOs: the Pogo Ballistic Battle Ball is armed with one HOming BOmb, or HOBO, on each of its three legs. Aimed upwards, they can be detached to launch at any ground-based opponent, homing in on their designated target to detonate with these capabilities:
| Handling RV 30 |
Velocity RV 50 |
Durability RV 20 |
Damage RV 40 Slashing (fragmentary) |
Machine Guns: mounted on a pivoting ring turret at the base of the Pogo Ballistic Battle Ball, these twinned guns can fire a short burst of ammunition to inflict rank value 20 Piercing damage, or fire continuously to inflict rank value 30 Piercing damage.
Super Jumping: the principal feature of the Pogo Ballistic Battle Ball, the vehicle can thrust itself into the air with its Short Blast pulse rockets, and then continue bouncing thanks to its nitrogen-compression relief shocks, servo-operated leg hinges, and Real Feel landing pods.
With additional pulses of vectored rocket thrust, the Pogo Ballistic Battle Ball can maintain the momentum required to bounce around with rank value 500 ability, crossing 600 feet, or 5 sectors, with each bound. This is enough to stymie even the most advanced targeting computers!
1993 Variations
the Invader
When developing additional weaponry for space-based combat, Cobra's engineers returned to the late Fred 7's concept vehicle, the Pogo Ballistic Battle Ball. Greatly expanding its capabilities, they have rendered the vehicle spaceworthy by applying the following improvements:
Communications Array: the Invader's radio transceiver works approximately the same as the Pogo Ballistic Battle Ball's while on the surface of a planet, its curvature limiting overall range. In space, though, it has rank value 100 range, capping out at 100,000 miles.
Environmental Independence: while it isn't useful for long stints in space, the Invader can support the continued respiration of its operator for some time. Possessing this ability at rank value 50, it can provide them with just over two days worth of useful air.
Levitation: in addition to bouncing to and fro, the Invader can effectively levitate. Using its retro rockets to descend from space onto the surface of a given world, or to launch itself away from the same, it can perform this feat with rank value 100 ability!
Intergalactic Body Armor Plating: this fancy name for a reinforced hull simply means the Invader has been ruggedized even more so than its vehicular ancestor. Thanks to this, the Invader has a Durability and Protection rating that is +1 RS of the Pogo Ballistic Battle Ball's.
Laser Cannons: to avoid recoil from its firearms throwing off its trajectory in lower gravity situations, the Invader's machine guns have been replaced with twinned laser emitters. They can fire a pulse of coherent light that inflicts rank value 20 Armor Piercing Energy damage.
Resistance to Pressure Variance: while the Invader's operator presumably has his or her own space suit, Cobra operations are often devised on the fly - or the cheap. As such, it can resist the vacuum of space, and other pressure variance, with rank value 75 ability.
Extra Goodies:
Cobra directories featuring a version of the Pogo Ballistic Battle Ball:
| 1987 | 1993 |
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