the Future Fortress

The Future Fortress is a unique addition to the GI Joe arsenal, in that it is a facility that is built not only from pre-fabricated parts, but parts that are components of several different vehicles! Each of the original six Battle Force 2000 vehicles donate parts to build the Future Fortress.

This literally makes the Future Fortress an 'instant base' for the Joes when they need to set up one in a hurry, even more so than their other ready-to-go compounds. The Battle Force 2000's Future Fortress is equipped with the following capabilities:

Dominator Contributions

The Dominator's snow tank forms the foundation of the Future Fortress, comprising two armored southern walls and the east and west corners in its diamond configuration. The glue that holds the rest together, the Dominator offers the following capabilities to the Future Fortress:

* Body Armor: the primary function of the Dominator's ski attack vehicle, it can be opened up to serve as the outer defense of the Future Fortress. Split at a ninety degree angle, it provides Excellent (20) protection against attack, as well as 1 CS of deflection at the same time.

* Heat Generation: the main purpose of the Dominator's Ski Attack vehicle is to melt snow in a hurry - likely to help it control a cold-weather battlefield, or to dig in when assembling the Future Fortress. It can generate heat of Incredible (40) intensity when necessary.

* Twin Terror Machine Guns: these dual pivoting machine guns, each mounted on the Future Fortress' corners, allow the driver to fire conventional weapons when necessary, inflicting Good (10) Shooting damage in a small burst, or Excellent (20) Shooting damage full auto.

Eliminator Contributions

While the Dominator's snow tank splits to form two walls of the Future Fortress, and thus the two 'side' corners of the facility, the Eliminator's coil gun platform serves as its rear, north corner when fully formed. The Eliminator coil gun platform offers the following to the Future Fortress:

* Coil Cannon: unlike the other 'guns' on the Eliminator, the coil cannon can pivot up and down. It is a twinned 20mm cannon, which can be fired to inflict Excellent (20) Shooting damage in a short burst, +1 CS when fired continuously.

* Sensor Suite: the Eliminator gun station is equipped with a powerful radar array, which allows its operator to track targets in its combat zone with Remarkable (30) ability. Since the coil cannon has a 360 degree firing radius, it lets its operator easily command a battle field.

When plugged into the Future Fortress, this suite of sensors usually focuses on the rear of the facility, allowing the Marauder's radar system to handle monitoring of the front half. Of course, this can be changed when necessary, leaning on one component or the other as needed.

Marauder Contributions

The Marauder's tank can be wheeled in to rest within the Dominator snow tank's frame, doing so on the southeast portion of the Future Fortress' interior. While it cannot move in this position, it can bring the following devices to bear for the Future Fortress' occupants:

* Kinetic Energy Gun: the main weapon the Marauder brings to the Future Fortress, this concussion cannon can inflict serious damage on enemy vehicles - or decimate their personnel! Each blast it fires inflicts Incredible (40) Force damage per deadly burst of directed energy.

* Radar System: the Marauder's tank adds its powerful, multi-sensor radar unit to the Future Fortress. It can track enemy vehicles and the like with Remarkable (30) ability and range, allowing its operator to keep track of all threats to the Battle Force 2000 facility.

* Tankmasher Missiles: the Marauder also provides two of these large missiles to the Future Fortress, one on each side - mounted just over each tread. These missiles have infrared homing targeters for a +1 CS to hit, and can inflict +1 CS damage if both are fired at once:

C
Ex 20		 S
Un 100		 B
Ex 20		 Damage
Remarkable (30) Edged Attack (fragmentary)

Sky Sweeper Contributions

The Sky Sweeper's sentry outpost can be hooked into the Dominator's snow tank frame, on the southwest portion of the Future Fortress. The gunner inside the outpost can fire the weaponry it donates to the Fortress with relative impunity, thanks to its heavy duty construction, as follows:

* Body Armor: the primary feature of the outpost, the thing is built from Incredible (40) m.s. materials, and being several inches thick, provides like body armor to its occupant. This allows him or her to easily fire on enemy personnel and positions without worry.

* Smokescreen: the outpost is equipped with smoke generators, the better to hide from enemy aircraft with. This smoke is specifically designed to obscure vision, doing so with Excellent (20) ability, though this is kind of a two-way street.

* Zap Laser Cannons: the outpost has two of these weapons at any given time. They are attached to the bottom and top when mounted on the anti-aircraft vehicle, and on the sides when it is either stand-alone or plugged into the Future Fortress.

These two cannons can each be fired to inflict Good (10) Armor Piercing Energy damage per blast. When hooked to either the anti-aircraft vehicle or the Future Fortress, they can be twinned, inflicting +1 CS damage by focusing both beams onto a singular target.

Vector Contributions

The 'round off' surveillance / ballistics pod on the rear of the Vector can be detached to a) serve as stand alone fire support or b) merge with other Battle Force components to form the Future Fortress! It connects at the south central corner of the instant facility.

Rather versatile, the turret can rotate in the horizontal axis as well as pivot in the vertical when necessary, allowing it to hit any target in three dimensions easily - which is handy as a forward-facing defense cannon. It is armed as follows:

* Blast-proof Shell: the Vector turret's casing is built from the same materials that its jet cockpit is, allowing the gunner to fire at enemies with relative impunity. The shell offers the turret occupant the same Protection rating the pilot possesses (Good (10).)

* Communications Array: the Vector's turret is equipped with a gigahertz frequency, frequency wobbler clandestine operations radio system. This makes for Feeble (2) communications power (with a one mile range) that has Remarkable (30) ranked signal encryption.

Since the turret is sort of cut off from the rest of the Fortress, this comes in handy.

* Machine Guns: the turret's main 'feature', these dual, twinned 7.62 mm auto-loading cannons can be fired together to inflict Excellent (20) Shooting damage in a short burst, raised by +1 CS in a fully automatic hail of doom.

Vindicator Contributions

The Vindicator's rocket sled can be hooked up to lie between the Eliminator's coil gun platform and the Dominator's snow tank frame, on the northeast portion of the Future Fortress. The rocket sled can't fly in this mode, but offers the Fortress these weapons:

* Communications Array: the Vindicator's rocket sled is equipped with a gigahertz frequency, frequency wobbler clandestine operations radio system. This makes for Good (10) communications power (with a 25 mile range) that has Remarkable (30) ranked signal encryption.

* Whistler Missiles: guided by laser for a +1 CS to hit (assuming the laser is kept on target), these hex-finned missiles can serve as surface-to-air or air-to-air missiles, and add a +1 CS to the damage they inflict for every doubling of missiles used. They function as follows:

C
Ex 20		 S
Un 100		 B
Gd 10		 Damage
Remarkable (30) Edged Attack (fragmentary)

Extra Goodies:

the Future Fortress Universal Heroes Text File Download

GI Joe directories featuring a version of the Future Fortress:

  1987  

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