Special equipment: Transformation system, ion field generator, modular passenger seat, gravitational cloak, TC/D drive, memory system
Length: 18 meters, wingspan 17.7 meters
Propulsion: Gravity drive: 470,000 kg thrust; top speed 7000 kph
Fixed armaments: Gravitational laser Gatling, mounted under nosecone, x6 barrels rated at 7000 MW each
Special equipment: Transformation system, ion field generator, gravitational cloak, TC/D drive, memory system
The introduction of the One–series XSeed combat frames ignited an arms race that saw not just the Coalition, but all factions, striving to produce a weapon as far above an XSeed as the XSeeds were above Guardians.Once again, Father of the Combat Frame Tesla Browning would usher in a new weapon paradigm with the XCDS-00M0 XSeed Metatron.
Operating from a remote asteroid base constructed by a long-dead civilization, Browning enlisted help from the enigmatic Secta called Kaeri to achieve multiple stunning breakthroughs. New concepts in carbon bonding and gravity manipulation gleaned from extrasolar sources yielded startling advancements in power generation, propulsion, sensor, stealth, armor, and weapon technologies. As was his wont, Browning built all of these advances into a single combat frame.
Browning built the Metatron around a revolutionary generator which harnessed a marble-sized black hole. Though the singularity at the XSeed’s core weighed more than the Chrysler Building, gravitons channeled from the CF’s propulsion system offset this otherwise unmanageable weight–a solution which Browning likened to, “pulling one’s feet off the ground by one’s own shirt collar.”
Regarding said propulsion system, the Metatron implemented a paradigm-shattering “gravity drive” which used gravitons skimmed from its generator to manipulate gravity as a wave. This drive enveloped the XSeed in a spatial bubble which did all the moving while the CF inside technically remained still. This arrangement allowed the CF to make right-angle turns at speed, accelerate from a full stop to top speed instantaneously and vice versa without the pilot experiencing what would normally be fatal g’s. A pair of wave guides attached to the Metatron’s back helped to direct these waves for greater maneuverability and control. Each wave guide consisted of three panels which could fan open on a hinge, making the XSeed appear to have angelic “wings”.
For the Metatron’s armaments, Browning drew inspiration from his original combat frame design by adding a rotary cannon. Unlike the mini-gun Browning bolted to a farming mech, the Metatron’s gravitational laser Gatling fired gravity-focused energy beams from each of its six spinning barrels. A sustained barrage proved capable of destroying a space colony, putting the XCDS-00M0 on par with the most powerful warships.
Browning installed a plasma sword emitter in the XSeed’s right forearm as its close-quarters weapon. Knowing that any opponent which managed to get into melee range with the Metatron posed an extraordinary threat, Browning eschewed the conventional magnetic field in favor of a graviton-based system to shape and hold the blade. This enhancement allowed for a greater volume of higher-energy plasma in the blade’s composition. The result was a weapon many times more powerful than any standard plasma blade.
Supplementing its relatively conventional gravity drive, the XCDS-00M0 implemented a little-understood TC/D drive. This device allowed the Metatron to traverse interstellar distances almost instantaneously. To facilitate TC/D, the XSeed incorporated transformation capability much like the XCD-102 Emancipator. The Metatron’s fighter mode gave it greater speed and stability, and pilots were advised to make TC/D jumps only in this form.
Higher-order defense was the defining mark of an XSeed, and the Metatron was no exception. Browning armored the XCDS-00M0 with the class’ trademark “1D” carbyne armor, which Kaeri augmented with fractal diamond isomers as seen in the Harvester. This enhancement meant that the Metatron could absorb half of an energy attack directed against it while repelling the rest. Instead of a single capacitor, energy from absorbed attacks was stored in the soft diamond matrix which suffused the XSeed’s structure. This measure prevented the catastrophic explosions sometimes triggered by capacitor breaches in other XSeeds.
Browning stepped up the Metatron’s defenses even further with the addition of an ion field to preserve armor integrity by deflecting plasma and particle attacks. To help ensure those attacks never took place, he improved on the XCD-104 Eschaton‘s dynamic optical cloak with an active gravitational cloak.This cloaking device used the same principles as the Metatron’s main propulsion system to surround the XCDS-00M0 in a gravity cocoon which warped light, EM waves, and all forms of radiation around the XSeed, rendering it practically invisible.
The Metatron differed from other XSeeds in lacking an A.I. operating system. Giving the pilot more direct control offered a speed increase but placed him at a disadvantage against more seasoned pilots. Kaeri compensated by equipping the Metatron’s cockpit with a Memory System based on a similar BCI/engram storage system from her Jigoku combat frame’s regeneration pod. By continually scanning the pilot’s brain activity, Metatron would maintain a constantly updated record of his combat data. These stored memories provided the main pilot with a performance-optimizing feedback stream and granted other pilots the benefits of his skill and experience. Only Secta, Sentinels, and those of Martian extraction were known to be compatible with the XCDS-00M0’s Memory System.
The XSeed Metatron will make its spectacular debut in the upcoming Combat Frame XSeed: CY 40 Second Coming. Get ready for the book’s rapidly approaching launch by reading the original Combat Frame XSeed today!
That looks beautiful. I've been waiting for this CF data sheet for a while. Slightly amused to see 'pulling yourself up by your own shirt collar' instead of 'pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps'.
Are NGA themes coming into CFXS now?
For the rest, I hold that the Systems Overterrestrial Coalition must be destroyed.
Yeah, not even Browning completely understands how the Metatron works.
I'm glad you like it 🙂
Brian
Whoa! Talk about over specs! I'll be very interested who pilots this and how.
Given the specs a pilot will be pushed beyond endurance.
The SOCs are in real trouble now
xavier
EVERYONE is in real trouble.
Yeah, that is one "universal soldier" CF compared to many–especially the SOC buds!
Sharp artwork, Todd!
What's your take on the powerplant and propulsion systems?
Brian
Umm mind blowing awesome? Genius level insane?
I can't wait to read about its exploits. I'm both fearful and curious. Like rubber necking an accident.
xavier
I buy into the gravity wave warping to drastically cut inertial motion and radically shift direction and speed. The wave(s) might be shaped to give a null gravity effect within the envelope while creating a motive effect externally. Simple gravitational calculations on a massive sphere that has a hollow center show that there are no gravitational "pulls" within the hollow of the sphere, while the exterior provides a gravitational pull on other bodies as would a solid sphere. (Gauss' Law calculation from General Physics — getcher Halliday and Resnicks out, gents!) Einstein postulated gravitational effect = inertial effect, so is this a demo of that? Hmm.
The power plant has the theoretical basis to be true. "Feeding" a black hole with mass at just the right approach relative to its event horizon allows you to skim energy from the system as the mass passes the horizon, probably as high energy x-rays.
Since we have a much smaller mass than 1.5 solar masses, the question is what holds the mass together, and is there an upper limit on what can be fed to our Chrysler Building-sized black hole?
If it gets "full" relative to its containment field (that allows it to stay in place relative to the reactor vessel), then what happens? I can guess that "boom" is a possibility, but a controlled bleed of energy or mass might be another option, if the containment allows the black hole to Jenny Craig itself.
All kinds of fun possibilities here!
Thanks for the thorough analysis.
Could we avert a potential BOOM by using an IR laser or microwave beam to bleed off the excess energy like some of the other XSeeds do?
You probably want to get rid of it as mass rather than energy if you can — roughly 4000x more efficient.
And if the ejected material happened to become the ammunition for a mass driver, why … what a world, what a world!
I read you. The "Gravitational Laser Gatling" is actually a relativistic particle beam. Browning just called it a laser for marketing purposes 🙂
"Browning just called it a laser for marketing purposes :)"
Yeah, always the boson, never the fermion with the typical Big 5 pub SF lump of paper. I get it why "laser" is the call-out to the typical reader.
But with XSeed, the half-integer spin particles get their just due! Take that, Bose-Einstein!