Miscellaneous Materiel

The soldiers of House Highdown may not be great in numbers, but they are well equipped. Herein can be found some of the gear commonly issued to Highdown forces, both ubiquitous equipment provided to every enlisted man and woman, and more specialist equipment that is common in certain units.

Standard-issue gear of House Highdown infantry
When shipping out, the typical House Highdown infantry member has to stagger around in order to carry the wealth of equipment that they are afforded by their beneficent masters. Many soldiers end up trading away a significant portion of their gear, or using it for creative but officially unsanctioned purposes, once they find some of it superfluous in whatever warzone they're currently fighting in. This is by design on the part of the senior command staff, based on their belief that such over-provisioning enables flexibility.

Highdown forces, in contrast with a typical Guard regiment being sent to fulfill a very specific role, need to be highly adaptable on a strategic level. Troops serving aboard the Allure may be ordered to repel a boarding action one day, secure a beachhead in a toxic wasteland the next day, and assault a domed city the day after that. This makes planning and distributing gear loadouts a logistical nightmare, which is easily (at least by the standards of the rich but under-manned Highdown military-industrial complex) solved by issuing gear suited for any likely situation.

The adaptability offered by over-provisioning troops is also found on the tactical level - it encourages soldiers to use their spare gear for creative purposes, either coming up with novel purposes for gear that is superfluous to their current situation, or bartering their spare equipment for items that they do need but the logistics system has failed to provide. These uses are officially frowned upon, but commissioned officers are instructed to only punish flagrant violations, and troops' creativity is discreetly monitored so as to identify particularly intelligent individuals for future advancement.

Worn

 * Armour appropriate to role
 * Modular load-bearing gear system
 * Field uniform
 * Dress uniform
 * Undershirts, socks, undergarments (4 units of each)
 * Additional thermal garments
 * Combat boots and spare laces
 * Wader boot covers
 * Gas mask compatible with helmet
 * Emergency chem/voidsuit with 30min air supply

Gear

 * Rucksack
 * House Highdown Doctrinal Instruction and Morale Enhancement (DIME) binder
 * Multi-purpose pocket tool
 * Entrenching tool
 * Mess kit
 * Canteen with water filter
 * Lightweight sleeping bag with thermal liner
 * Fire starter
 * Rechargeable Lamp pack
 * Grooming kit
 * Chrono
 * Dog tags
 * Cameleoline tarpaulin

Consumables

 * Stimulant autoinjectors
 * Standard ration packs, 4 weeks' worth
 * High-energy emergency ration pack, 2 weeks' worth
 * Lho sticks, good quality
 * Heavy duty adhesive tape
 * Flare
 * Field medi-pack

Weapons and accessories

 * Primary weapon and accessories appropriate to role
 * Sidearm appropriate to rank and role
 * Spare ammunition for primary weapon, typically at least eight magazines
 * Spare ammunition for sidearm, typically at least two magazines
 * Weapon maintenance kit
 * Mono knife/bayonet with sheath
 * Grenades appropriate to role (frag, krak, and smoke are ubiquitous)

Centaur Carrier
Light personnel carrier capable of shuttling troops and supplies around, or towing crew-served weapons. Typically has dedicated driver who maintains the vehicle and guards it when on the battlefield but not in use. Carries six passengers, one or two of whom operate the pintle-mounted weapon, and the others can operate the rear-mounted weapon. Designed as more of a battlefield taxi than a true armoured fighting vehicle, though they are effective in a primary combat role in low-intensity conflicts.

Pintle-mounted weapon: For infantry carriers, the mount is left empty for the carried unit to mount their own. Otherwise, an ASSL is mounted.

Rear-mounted weapon: Space for a mortar or missile launcher.

Individually capable of towing Heavy Mortar or Twin Ludd Autocannon carriages, or Sabre gun platform; or two working together can tow an earthshaker carriage. Space for a folded up Tarantula in the back.

Typical add-ons:
 * Camo-netting
 * Smoke launcher (including Blind EM chaff)
 * Track guards
 * Nightvision-compatible searchlight
 * Quick-fit attachment point for dozer blade or minesweeper
 * Ration/water heater

A note on Ludd camouflage
All soldiers' standard-issue gear is issued with terrain-appropriate camo patterns and vehicles are repainted wherever possible to match local climactic conditions. Troops are trained in concealment techniques, particularly in the use of the local environment to enhance their camouflage, e.g. by applying mud to break up the outline of one's gear (and checking first to make sure it isn't horrible acid mud or some shit).

True cameleoline is issued to elite forces, but the lower value frontline troops are frequently issued with an alternative, less expensive adaptive camouflage solution. The Greater Chromatopod, a cephaloform ambush predator native to the inland oceans of Ludd III, hides itself from its prey using a complex but remarkably stable biomolecule produced by glands in its skin, which alters colour to match the local environment. Though not capable of the near invisibility effect of high quality cameleoline, it is relatively easy to harvest, refine, and impregnate into clothing. This technique was mastered millennia ago by the tribefolk of Ludd, who wear their colour-shifting hunting ponchos with pride, and has now been industrialised by House Highdown.

Chromatopods are swept up by deep sea collection vessels and killed by harpoon charges before the barbed nets are winched up onto the deck. Skilled butchers remove the carapace and the bulk of the massive creatures is pulped for seafood flavoured gruel. The swaths of skin are blended up and fractionated, then the purified chromatophore is siphoned off and crystallised into a fine (and carcinogenic) dust that can be blended into a stable dye for clothing.

An active research effort is underway to adequately breed the Chromatopods or, better yet, synthesise the biomolecule de novo.

Krak Stick
Lightweight, 1.5m long metal tube containing a shaped charge, designed to blast aside light fortifications such as razorwire and to set off anti-personnel mines. Issued to squads expected to fight in trench warfare or similar environments.

Drop Shield
2.5m diameter expanded polymer and ceramite foam concave disc with straps to hold one solider and their gear in place while they hurtle through a planet's atmosphere. Small cold gas jets provide stabilisation and some degree of braking. At a pre-set altitude, the straps release and the soldier finishes their descent via grav chute. In order to keep the overall design lightweight and compact, the shield is not intended to be re-used.

Cameleoline tarpaulin
Robust and lightweight tarpaulin, typically cut to 3m square, impregnated with a substance derived from the colour-shifting cephalopods of Ludd III. Not sufficiently rapid in colour change to function as a particularly effective cloak for fast-moving objects, but well suited to making static positions blend in with the local scenery. Highdown troopers are trained to use them to construct individual dugouts as well as patch-working a whole platoon's together to cover an encampment from aerial surveillance.

Target Designation Device
Hand-held device - chunky cylinder about 30cm long - with a laser rangefinder and target designator functions. As a half action, user can grant another character a +20 bonus to their BS test when firing Indirect weapon, or when firing an appropriate targeted weapon (e.g. guided bombs)

Advanced HUD system
Weapon link with telescopic zoom, preysense lenses, and integration with infantry comms set and auspex units. Issued to elite forces.

Microbead headset
Good quality microbead unit with noise cancelling capabilities and basic cryptographic capabilities. Meshes with Infantry comms set. Issued to most individual soldiers of professional levels or better, or to squad sergeant of less skilled squads.

Infantry comms set
Compact vox system consisting of a small belt/webbing mounted transmitter and battery pack, which connects to a wrist mounted dataslate unit and has inputs for standard microbeads. Also compatible with HUDs and MIUs. Offers two-way vox and pict transmission. Significantly lighter than a standard vox set - about 3kg for the system including dataslate - and features basic cryptographic capabilities. Issued to officers and squad or platoon-level comms specialists.

Infantry holo set
Briefcase-sized device that folds out into a small holo-table with several data ports, allowing a field officer and their staff to receive rich tactical data in real-time. Utilises more advanced cryptography than the standard comms set, and serves as a mesh network node when attached to an appropriate transmitter system.

Vehicle comms unit
High quality, long-range vox set; essentially a more powerful and feature-rich version of the infantry comms set. Provides integration with orbital network, positioning data, etc. Notably features a spool of cable that can be used to hard-wire vehicles' comm systems together in order to avoid creating comms traffic.

Vehicle holo unit
Advanced command and control system used by company level command and above. Major mesh network node.