Entering mass-production in Yamatai Era 36, the Winter II is the LSDF's main battle frame. Equal parts frame to starfighter, it is faster than fighters and deadlier than power-armor with big engines and big guns. The Winter II comes in manned and unmanned types and features self-repair, integrated aetherics and the capability to use equipment from other unrelated platforms including fighters, frames and power-armor.

The intended use is as a platform which covers ground like a fighter though is able to loiter and hide amongst the environment as an attack helicopter does, while present a minimal vertical profile, clinging to the ground as a tank does. In space, this maxim follows a see first shoot first policy. Defense primarily comes from evasion and situational awareness, with twitchy reflexes, aggressive acceleration and mobility doing the hard work: Fancy technical foot-work, rather than eating punches. This being said, the Winter II is no glass-jaw, sporting the best in Lorath enginering and armor design.

The stock Winter II is especially optimized to excel when carrier-launched in groups in deep space and has a number of carrier-specific adaptation, taking the fight to the enemy out of the box.

Under development for nearly a decade, the Winter II (a direct descendant of the original Winter frame) emphasizes the same light-frame high mobility of its predecessor, remaining true to the core vision of the line. In a new atmosphere with threats on every side militarily, politically and economically, the Winter II emphasises firepower in a way the original never could.

The bread and butter of the Winter II is high powered engines, fighter grade field-drivers and as many weapons as she can carry: internal armaments both versatile and powerful, aetheric weapons can be deployed and authorized in the field and the frame's party-piece comes in the form of a dynamic engine, mounting and defensive solution which allows the frame to fit up to eight anti-shipping missiles, each capable of disabling launch-bays, weapon support systems, sensors, engines and FTL of enemy vessels with well placed surgical strikes once enemy shields are down: disabling enemy vessels rather than outright destroying them.

Importantly, given the smaller size of the LSDF and the number of Lorath personnel relative to other major powers, the Winter II compensates for these lower numbers with a higher overall specification - making every pilot in the field that bit more effective: quality making up for quantity.

• Core construction breakdown
• Power & Propulsions system breakdown
• Supplemental & Supporting systems
• Hardpoints and mounting information
• Variations and specific versions
• Pilot suit, attire & survival equipment attire for the Winter II
• Pilot's guide for the Winter II
• NGWIX Wing Assembly for Winter II

• September, YE29 - Phase 1 design begins
  • May, YE34 - Two test-types are brought onboard the LSDF Akahar
    • PAV 2 goes missing
    • PAV 2 is stolen by Medic Merril 'Soft Touch' Ghere Lmanel (lost)
    • PAV 1 is launched by Ny'za "Pitch" Hasti Lmanel to recover PAV2.
    • PAV 1 lands onboard Mynydoed with assimilated PAV 2
• Febuary YE35 - Further funding granted, Phase 2 begins
  • October YE37 - Four prototypes are requestioned for the LSDF Val'ta for training purposes
    • Specialist test-pilot/instructor My'ean "Blackwolf" Idoku Fyunnen begins training staff
    • Two are launched alongside a Whirlwind heavy frame to support three Wayfarer shuttles during an expedition to Tange
  • October YE37- A prototype is leased to Rebeka Retena stationed at the ISC Phoenix II.
    • Destroyed in encounter with unknown Lagrange frame November YE37
• $MONTH, YE37 Mass Production Begins
  • Manufacturing & Maintenance schematics issued to LSDF, DION, DATASS as per military lease
  • Existing models are updated

While based on the original Winter frame, the Winter II's capabilities are based heavily in technology salvaged and replicated from known Sourcian resources – research from Miles Gunn, Aiesu Kalopsia and Tai Sichou essential in its design.

The resulting Winter II blends a structol substrate smart material core, a faceted TYPE-MAESUS quasiorganic computer, and an Aura aetheric powerplant into a single package.

• Unit Type: Carrier-Launch interceptor/strike bomber
• Type: Structol substrate core aura-powerplant
• Classification: Powered Frame
• Model Number: LZ-AMX-201
• Namesake: Winter II

• Known Pilots, owners & operators
  • Miles Gunn (Design Consultant)
  • Sana Nakamura (Fine tuning/Calibration)
  • My'ean "Blackwolf" Idoku (Test-Pilot, Instructor)
  • Sesshoseki Tamamo (Dissimilar combat training/International exchange)
  • Rebeka Retena (Limited Issue Live Testing)
  • Ny'za "Pitch" Hasti Lmanel (Live Testing)
  • Merril 'Soft Touch' Ghere Lmanel (Extended Testing & Review)

The frame stands at nearly two and a half stories with most of its length made up by its lithe legs, which provide thrust and shock absorption while doubling as flight control surfaces. The frame can hunker down to lower heights by relaxing its posture. Without thrust, the general movement of the frame is slick, driven by a combination of beam-drive tendons, the structol core musculature, and spherical doll-like joints (inspired by PROJECT THOUGHT's frictionless joint): The construction of the frame affords it unusual flexibility and agility despite its size.

In addition, due to its material composition the machine is quite light, relying on a high thrust to weight ratio, smart materials and combat awareness to keep it out of harm's way.

• Height: 5.58 Meters (3.77 Meters with third-stage leg retracted)
• Width: 3.65 Meters
• Depth: 1.92 Meters
• Mass: 1200kg (1.2 tons) net weight, 8300kg (8.3 tons) max
• Accommodation: Pilot only (torso/head/mandibles)
• Core Variants:
  • General Use model: Manned, unmanned, special payload, PA-mount
  • Specialist variants:
    • XB/531 Interceptor Special - Under Development
    • TR/380 Doll Faye - Under Development

The Winter II's mobility depends on a combination of factors: Gravity control and plasma/antimatter rocketry which use either high speed vectored plasma for maneuvering or matter/antimatter annihilation in the plasma stream for sharp aggressive bursts of thrust or interception speeds. This also includes a dimensional pocket system similar to the combined field system for combat in larger ranges in space and a hyperspace fold booster for long distance movement (such as interception, positioning, blockade formation or exiting a combat theater).

In comparison to advanced starfighters, the Winter II generally has a superior thrust/weight ratio, doing away with heavy armor in exchange for mobility – relying on this mobility in combination with energetic defences and jamming to keep itself out of harms way.

All values are stated strictly as upper maximums and are rarely reached or needed during combat due to component damage. G-forces are compensated for using common gravitics and inertial cancelling technologies.

• PDCT "Super-Phoenix" II plasma/positron Engine (Thrust applied force; vectorable/reversible rocket, explosive burst)
  • Pulse Boost (lateral evasive burst): 90.01 Gs max (0-2000 km/h in 0.9 seconds, evasive burst lasting 0.4 seconds)
  • Standard Boost (constant thrust): 0-500 mp/h in 4 seconds (125 mph per second or 5.68g
  • Over Boost (Positron Rocket/Escape Burn): 0-300 mp/h in 3 seconds (266.7 mph per second or 12.12g's for 19 seconds)
  • Max speed: 10741.8 mph/ 17287.2 kph/mach 12)

• LX-201 Gravitic Centrifuge Array (Ignorance of gravity; walking along walls, ceilings, pushing/pulling from objects, slingshot turns)
• Maximum Acceleration: (0-200mph in 3 seconds, 100 mph per second or 4.55g's)
• Maximum speed: 2148 mp/h

• PDCT "Super-Phoenix" II plasma/positron Engine (Basic Mode: Thrust applied force; jet-like, rocket-like, explosive apogee vernier)
  • Pulse Boost: 347 Gs (0-2000 km/h in 0.334 seconds, evasive burst lasting 0.7 seconds)
  • Maximum speed: N/A (capped to 0.35c)
  • Full PDCT output: 0-4000 in 3 seconds (1333.3 mph per second or 60.61g's)
• LX-201 Gravitic Centrifuge Array
  • LX-201 Gravitic Centrifuge Array ( Combined Field Mode) (Ignorance of inertia; near instantaneous changes in velocity and direction)
    • Maximum Acceleration: 0-20,000 km/h in 2 seconds (10000 mph per second or 454.55g's)
    • Maximum speed: 0.35c (limited by spacial friction)
    • Subspace Overboost: 0.45c (reduced spacial friction for 30 seconds via bleeding from FTL into STL)

• AN-338 Dedicated Gap Drive (Hyperspace fold; point to point)
  • Charging Time: 7 seconds seconds (for max travel)
  • Cooldown: 20 seconds
  • Maximum Range: 777 Astronomical Units
  • Maximum Jump Duration: 6 seconds
• Enhanced Subspace Wave Drive (Subspace wave; High speed A to B for interception purposes, extruded via plasma wake for greater efficiency)
  • Maximum Acceleration: 342,980 c (0.6 ly/m)
  • Maximum Range: 15 Light Years
  • Maximum Jump Duration: 46 minutes

At a given point, manufacturing rights are leased as a licence allowing a nation to produce as many as they want from scratch provided they pay royalties (typically 10% of full cost). This licence is not a lease: every single model produced belonging to whoever built them with full rights for modification and further changes belonging to the customer.

• Manufacturers: Lazarus Consortium
• Designers: Aiesu Kalopsia, Miles Gunn, Tai Sichou, Lazarus Consortium
• Developed from: Winter II, Hawk Fighter/Bomber, Maras, Aurora

Other variants are also available; including an unmanned version with a special payload cockpit, a type designed to mount a powered-armor (similar to a power-loader or power-plus) on the front which can be ejected and many custom manned types, including models with more traditional cockpits.

With the use of drones, a pilot is recommended for the purpose of not only tactical and strategic instructions with would bare subjective morality as well as objective decision making into the battle-field but also command for groups of drones and of course legal accountability for possible fire and collateral.

Importantly, all units produced are capable of operating unmanned - either driven by a ROM construct, an installed SI or an remote computer system. The frame can also operate under its own decision automatically making though it is less effective.

• Fielded & Manufactured by:
  • LSDF
  • DION
  • DATASS
  • Lazarus Consortium

During operation the pilot rests within a cavity in the torso of the frame, in a space that can be likened to a shaped coffin sitting upon a sculpted saddle, their legs resting in slots to either side and resting within the Frame's hips. The pilot's arms rest within the mandable extrusions, long sleeve like cavities mobile only at the shoulder containing the hand controls. while the pilot's head rests within the neck of the machine. The pilot's head rests within a cavity situated roughly within the frame's neck within which houses the dispay.

A pilot fits somewhere between 5'0 and 6'9 in its default state and can be adjusted for larger or smaller pilots. Pilots rely on a combination of hand-driven controls, head and gaze tracking and neural systems for control and a false-volumetric helmet, laser-projection system (painting an image onto the back of the user's retina) and psychoactive neural control system for input.

The control system of the frame, located in the torso features an unusual half-by-half input system: able to be drive manually with hand-controls like most equipment with fine control and special operations handed to an advanced neural system called intention recognition or IR. IR reduces stress in pilots, freeing up their autonomic features of the brain (hormone control, respiration, heart-rate) to keep pilots zen-like while then using the freed up mental horse-power and bandwidth to drive the frame based on intentions: That the user feels an outcome of actions and the frame's computers then step backwards and find ways to make these things possible. In choosing what to do rather than focusing on the specifics of what is happening, the frame's reaction speeds and fine control far exceed anything else of its size-class: The pilot becoming a decision maker.

In practice, pilots describe this control system as “both being part of the frame and also driving it from the inside”. Their perspective of the world is described as “points of light dictating the placements of energy and mass, seeing inside surfaces and knowing their contents”, inspired by Sourcian spacial awareness and sensing systems. To avoid confusion with such tight integration, a tight fog of war is presented: the system and user's brain simulating ghosts of expectation as to where the enemy is likely to be or where probable ambush or other special operation locations are likely to be, allowing pilots to avoid pit-falls they have only either realised unconsciously or that the system has recognised – in this way creating a tactical computer which supplements the conscious and unconscious decision making of the pilot with cold hard data, making the use of the frame quite instinctive and natural.

Feedback is provided by three systems:

• Viewer: An intra-optical laser-feed, projecting an image directly onto the retina of the user: Part of the pilot-suit, sitting on the cheekbone of the wearer. Can be used outside of the machine in combination with neural control for limited remote activation and manipulation.
• Monitor: The neural uplink which populates the visual cortex of the user with machine-fed and filtered information. A combination of pilot-suit and frame.
• Display: A display of two-way transparent volumestrice. Offers a false illusion of depth. Melded not to the pilot suit helmet but to the head cavity of the frame, which features an internal display (usually used as a sort of “task planner” for strategic combat operation, projecting a “world map” of the battlefield but potentially a backup). A second layer is present on the outside of the head-cavity: When the head is opened and the pilot's face revealed, the display can depict a false image of who or what the pilot is.

Also important for pilot survival is the pilot attire: equipment designed to facilitate better performance with the frame itself and to heighten the odds of survival for the pilot themselves. This includes a pilot-suit and a number of tactical and survival options included in a vest and a number of bags attached to the body. The suit itself includes biomedical feedback systems, neural controls, a simple computer and a display readout system, with the survival bags containing useful equipment.

• For more information, please consult the Winter II Pilot Attire
• See pilotinformation

See damage_rating for an explanation of the damage system.

• Body: ADR3, 17SP ?

• Integrated Barrier Shields: Threshold 5

OR

• Combined Field System: 17/SP20

Given that the Winter II is stated as being more durable than the AMX-101/102 a number above 15 would make sense, I was thinking either 17 or 20 would work, could possibly be tweaked/updated in the future. Though since it is a moot stat functionally for RP either number will work.

Edit this section to be the barrier shields, have the normal full spectrum be either 1/2 or 3/4 the SP of the Frame's body so either 8/13 or 10/15 with threshold 3 or 4 up to you. Then for the limited duration CFS equivalent shielding that it has list it as a second point with 17/20SP Threshold 5

* Mercury Units: Threshold X

Leave the mercury units out of this and instead cover their defensive contributions in their own article.

The Winter II is designed with an emphasis on combined arms and manoeuvre warfare doctrine in mind, verses Nepleslian styles of attrition and swarming, or Yamataian styles of high speed interdiction.

The machine's mounting capacity allows for a wide variety of hand-held weapons, deep missile reserves, room for strike weaponry, specialist enhancements and a large tactical weapon with close combat almost entirely taken care of with the frame's integrated internal weapons.

Designed with a long service life and versatility in mind, the frame is designed to adapt to new hardware allowing it to, with time, mount equipment made by almost any nation for any platform; Applied, enemy, second hand, black market, makeshift or even scrap. In addition, the frame can purge its excess weight for greater mobility and power consumption when weapons are expended or when survival depends on mobility.

It should be noted that while the Winter II has many hardpoints, it cannot be fully loaded without seriously affecting the frame's performance.

The Winter II's integrated weapons were added anticipating scenarios in which no weapons would be available. Integrated weapons, while less powerful, are respectable within their own right, presenting pilots with a bare minimum of armament at all times, which is always available. While thought of as last resort weapons, a skilled pilot can make great use of integrated weapons, especially in close range combat.

Integrated weapons		Range (Atmos)	Range (Vacuum)	DR
	LA-AM-ODF 1000	2km	????	ADR 3
	Wire Guided Grapple Arm	200m	200m	ADR 5
	Apparition Wake Array	75m	????	ADR 4

Tactical Equipment		Description
	LZ-TDL	Tactical Launcher
	LZ-SNC	Scout Sphere
	Internal storage locker	None

The main integrated weapon of the Winter II, this manipulator can form a wide variety of tools, ranged weapons and hand-types for various purposes, be detached from the frame or be stored compactly. As a weapon, it is able to use either plasma, positrons (as packet shots) or aether, fired from the fingernails of the frame or in special firing modes. It can fire in sequence like a machine-gun, all at once like a shotgun, form a blade, manipulate gravity, perform basic repairs or perform a wide variety of other tasks.

Notably, the aether blade is designed to be able to parry other aetheric weapons due to deliberate charging. The Winter II features up to ten total (two conventional manipulators, two in 'switchblade' reserve in its hands and an optional additional six held in reserve within the knees)

• Firing Modes: blade, packet, tracking, guided, compressed
• Output Modes: plasma, aether
• Maximum Effective Range: 2km
• Maximum Damage Rating: ADR 3 (Plasma), ADR 5 (Aether)
• See thing

The fore-arms of the Winter II can be fired away on wire, using plasma thrusters as a kind of “rocket punch”, to knock back hostiles, damage softer targets or reel in opponents and objects with great strength. The “cable” is made of hard-light and is interspaced with sharp segments akin to a spine which are also able to vent thrust or be coated with said plasma into a magnetically confined beam, as a type of wire-blade to slice and garrote targets. In the event the cable is 'cut', the arms can continue to act autonomously and even re-dock.

Rocket Punch ADR1, often stunning powered-armor
Cable range 200 meters maximum
Plasma garrote: ADR 4 (commonly severs limbs or components from units)

Not actually a blade, the switch-blade hands are a reserve pair of hands connected to the gauntlet fore-arm blocks. They are designed to hold a reserve weapon which sits flush against the underside of the arm, as a switchblade does against its handle. The purpose is to switch between weapon-types quickly for different ranges without dropping or releasing any weapons.

Often, they are left empty but switched specifically to use the built in solenoids. Like the frame's own hands, they can follow the five finger hand or form a symmetrical hand with two index fingers and two thumbs.

A common use is to combine both hands on an arm with the solenoid in its blade configuration and the wire-guided arm. The hands themselves can act as also act as a crushing claw when used together.

Produced by the vent strips of Super Phoenix engines is the 'apparition wake'; a prehensile antennae made of cold ionized plasma produced by the engines themselves. Similar in form to the confinement technologies used to produce the Compressed Packet Rifle, the wake is instead repurposed to create a wide variety of broadcast and receiver properties ideal for field forming and amplifying, making technologies like the Combined Field System (achievable by the Lorath using the Gravitic Centrifuge) more robust and reliable.

Projectors of the apparition wake are distributed through the frame's body as long blade-like strips (a large one in each leg, four in the optional wing pack, two medium arrays in the intermediaries, four small arrays in the shoulders and three small arrays: one in each fore-arm and one in the codpiece). These strips, if damaged, reduce the frame's ability to project the wake. The system fails gradually as each projector is torn down.

See Apparition Wake Array

The Winter II is designed to grow with usage, having a massive capacity for upgrades and specialist fittings. While the machine can take on large payloads, the frame's mobility and power consumption suffer accordingly: a light frame with nearly zero fittings being very fast and a machine maxed out sluggish in comparison. Fitted equipment can be ejected or on demand in the field without specialist assistance.

See Hardpoints of the Winter II for additional information.

Hand-held
	Frame Left-hand
	Frame Right-hand
	Switchblade left
	Switchblade right
	Mandible arms

Hardpoints
	Leg hardpoints (8)
	Shoulder hardpoints(4)
	Hip hardpoints (2)
	Cavity fittings (12)
	Heavy Armature

AMX-20X-NGIW Wing Extension
	Left Inner bay 1
	Right Inner bay 1
	Left Inner bay 2
	Right Inner bay 2
	External Mount Pylon 1
	External Mount Pylon 2
	External Mount Pylon 3
	External Mount Pylon 4
	Internal Mount Pylon 1
	Internal Mount Pylon 2

The AMX-20X-NGIW Wing Extension an engine extension and multitool. It is able to act as a large antennae, physical shield, thruster system, engine extension and allows the Winter II to sacrifice its heavy armature mount in exchange for a large number of smaller mounts, ideal for torpedos missiles and bombs while improving the base performance of the frame. The AMX-20X-NGIW Wing Extension mounts to the Heavy Payload Armature mount

Hardpoints: Inner Bays (4), External Mount Pylon (5), Internal Mount (2)
Operating modes: Hip Fin (compact), Deflection Barrier, Full Wing
Maximum Defence Rating: ADR3? SP?
Mobility Enhancement: .45c

See AMX-20X-NGIW Wing Extension for Winter II

The AMX-20X-AAW missile launcher package is compromprised of three specialized launchers, repeated over the body six times - making for a total of eighteen launchers. Each can be rotated on its mount and features two sub-launchers. Each missile launcher is designed to fire ONE Lorath MEDIUM missiles (with the lid hinged, the missile adhering to the lid) and FIVE Lorath MICROMISSILES each - making a total of 18 MEDIUM missiles and 90 MICROMISSILES.

The system is capable of firing at up to 80 targets simultaniously or alpha-strike a single opponent while software coordinates and ensure missiles do not collide with one another in flight. Vollys can be reloaded from a secondary source (such as a volumetric compression) or external source. In addition, rounds can be briefly accelerated to FTL speeds for rapid clearance using the gapdrive, or they can be pre-activated without being launched (surrounding the frame) and then fire as it drops out of Enhanced Subspace Wave Drive, having been brought with it via area-of-effect.

See Lorath Missile Standards

While not particularly useful in most cases in a one on one engagement, tactical equipment serves to help the Winter II when serving as part of a group or when the enemy's position and movements are neither obvious nor known - allowing pilots a larger capability to pick and choose their battles.

The tac-launch assembly is a grid of stacked, specialised .50 cal shells, located in the left intermediary on its top side. Ordinarily when fired, it sends a given shell upward into the air, though by rotating the intermediary, it can be used to fire forwards, backwards or even beneath the frame. Its main purpose is to launch the UL-13, a disposable recon drone which completes the gaps in the Winter II's operational awareness in terrestrial environments.

Shells include:

• UL13 Light Recon Drone (Standard Issue)
• Inflatable dummies with false-positive IFF and sensor signiatures
• Conditional variable-yield explosives (time, proximity, remote detonation, etc)
• High explosives (ideal for widening small hull incisions)
• EM absorbant particle shrowds, ideal during retreats
• Radio-detonated directional anti-personnel fragmentation rounds
• Biological/chemical weapons systems
• Radiological tag-markers for orbit to surface strikes

Mounted on the chest, the scout-sphere is a redundant set of primary sensors which can be detached either on a prehensile spine or completely from the body. This newly improved version of the technology includes an extensive electronic warfare suite providing additional options for pilots. When not in use the 'eye' is rolled inward toward the core of the frame, revealing the more thickly armoured rear.

• For More Information: Scout Sphere
• Alternatively, a pilot can fit a Automatic Companion in place of the scout sphere.

Detailed below are key systems and secondary systems of the Winter II powered frames. While pilots may make changes to suit their preferences, these basic systems are universal across most machines and ensure a basic operational benchmark.

The design of the Winter II separates its core construction from armor, though its core construction is designed with combat in mind. The exterior of the frame resembles skin laminated with honey, reminiscent of polished latex or a waxed car. It is curiously pliant and soft to the touch with a pleasing warmth, similar to human skin. It is not unusual for the exterior of the frame to be very hot or cold, depending on its function.

• advancedassembly

The Winter II's construction uses a multitude of different systems working together: The design itself is endoskeletal (inside skeleton) with exoskeletal elements (outside skeleton) toward the limbs.

The construction begins with the Torque-Bus, a spine-like limited-self-regenerating assembly similar to bones, though it has three spines and serves as fuel storage and the main joint system of the frame.

Next is the Structol Substrate Musculature & Transmission System which can be thought of as a sort of regenerating metalloid synthetic flesh that plays the role of muscles and organs, including the heart of the machine.

Finally, the IRI Beam Drive System threads the entire thing with solid light acting as both rebar and puppet-strings.

The ability of the overall frame is broken down into two classifications: Damage and system health. While the frame can be crippled, it is usually disabled rather than destroyed - needing its System Health to be compromised before it is successfully destroyed. Often, pilots die before the frame itself dies: as a result, it is not unusual for a frame to be combat operational around 72 hours after a crippling sortie. This allows characters who would normally be Killed in Action to be lose or be shot down without dying (often crippled or seriously hurt).

Long term damage like PTSD, loss of limb or organ function is suggested (creating character arcs and challenges to overcome and the opportunity for kickass cybernetic augmentations) - and survivalist roleplay is also strongly encouraged.

• System Health: The overall functioning of regenerating parts - the 'flesh and blood' parts of the frame like the structol muscle, balance control, life-support, cooling and regulatory systems. When system health fails, the frame is 'dead' and cannot be repaired. This is usually up to the decision making of the Games Master.
• Damage: the damage taken to parts that can't regenerate: Armor plating, hard systems (powerplant, engines) and weapons. These parts can be replaced in the field by a pilot using salvaged armor plating and system parts from other units.

Fitted over the frame's endoskeleton is a second layer of hard protection in the form of an armored exoskeleton which comes in two layers: a support layer holding the whole thing together composed of composites and structol and a second layer ontop serving as armour plating using X – the idea being that harder parts can crack safely without damaging parts beneath and softer parts and beam rebar will absorb shock making fractures like this less common.

Finally, the whole thing is laminated in a special form of structol designed to ablate and change its structural properties based on anticipated attacks.

Suspended in the laminate are quasi-crystals: dust-sized particles of special allatropes of carbon and other materials with special electromagnetic, thermal and kinetic properties. These can be formed into simple picoscopic machines inside the skin to do a multitude of different things.

The design of the Winter II combines characteristics of frames, fighters and powered-armor and can take some getting used to. As such, the layout is detailed here, explaining some of the basic capabilities of the frame.

Mandable arms, located in the chest, offer personal-scale object manipulation with micro-tools embedded into the fingertips of the enlarged hands and a second set of smaller hands embedded into the palms for more precise manipulation.

The large outer arms of the frame are mounted via prehensile spines running along its sides which while normally locked into place at the shoulders, can be drooped over the hips (not unlike a jacket), freeing up the shoulder slots for an additional pair of weapons.

The shoulder panels themselves are able to swivel to reveal the inner workings of the shoulders and feature integrated engines capable of sustaining the frame in flight under 1G when opened - specifically designed for heightened vertical stability, breaking and descent control.

The arms feature not one hand each but two, the second set mounted on a movable gauntlet which can be launched away on wire. In this way with a specially designed wrist mechanism, the frame can have two weapons per arm - though balancing and motion control only allows for use of one at a time: The other flipped in a switchblade fashion parallel with the arm, tucked away. This allows the Winter II to carry reserve and backup weapons.

The unusually shaped legs of the frame feature two knees and the second shin lower down and the second knee can be withdrawn entirely into the first shin - acting as a shock-absorber or to reduce the frame's vertical profile, making it shorter. This high suspension surface can also be used as a piston, improving kicks or jumps - giving the frame a fast stable ostrich-like running stance even without any thrust or gravitational stabilization.

The talon-like feet of the frame are actually enlarged hands with two thumbs forming heels - designed to grip and lock into terrain for optimal affordance over all surface types - particularly when climbing. Integrated knife-like claws allow the frame to bite into concrete or rock - meaning should it fall over, it is able to bite into the floor to self-right or to brace for impact - or again, for greater affordance.

The power and propulsion systems of the Winter II rely not on a single device but many devices which exchange resources with one another.

• For advanced information, see powersystems

The Winter II is driven primarily by a AN063 Aura aetheric core: a powerplant which 'burns' matter in a process differing from fusion or fission to produce useful products: among which is aether.

Slaved to the AN063 is a Super Phoenix MK XI PDCT-II: an advanced plasma engine manifold which feeds from products of the generator to form accelerated plasma which may be used as thrust or other purposes via field controllers. The Super Phoenix can operate in atmosphere at very high efficiencies or dump antimatter into its thrust-stream for a burst of intense acceleration.

Not a power system so much as a propulsion system, gravitic centrifuges are rings of rotating special fluid which when accelerated to very high speeds exert gravitational projection. The devices, located throughout the frame's construction serve as propulsion, CCD projection and self-concealment.

Based on the subspace_drive, the Enhanced Subspace Wave Drive is a very efficient subspace propulsion system designed for long operation, high stability and low power consumption. Importantly, the stability and effectiveness of the subspace wave field improves as the number of participants grows which forms the foundation of “CLASP”: Controlled Linked Assisted Propulsion in which a group of Winter II dock together and are able to fast-travel greater distances together than they would alone; often with a single piloted commander unit and three drones as a wing, moving as a group of two or more wings.

A very specialised form of FTL, the gap drive is designed not for peak FTL performance but for interception, closing the gap in inter-system combat: surpassing sublight engines but moving safely through a populated system. It has a much lower operational duration but also a very short recharge time, meaning it can be used repeatedly in combat. Very importantly, the gap-drive recharges independently of the Enhanced Subspace Wave Drive meaning even in main FTL is offline, the gap-drive is still available. With enough modification (taking several hours), the unit can act as a conventional FTL engine as a backup should the main be fried.

Used properly, the gap-drive can drop the Winter II very close to its intended targets or create distance to terminate an engagement.

• Charging Time: 7 seconds seconds (for max travel)
• Cooldown: 20 seconds
• Maximum Range: 777 Astronomical Units (0.0122865807 lightyears/387 726.717 light seconds/107.7 Lighthours)
• Maximum Jump Duration: 6 seconds

Supporting the power-plant and serving as the bread and butter of the Winter II's power-grid and resource exchange, C4R modules (gravitational control, particle condenser, cooling and particle rectification) bottle many complex systems together into a singular modular unit about the size of a beverage-can.

These units can be ejected and rapidly exchanged in pit-landings between waves of sortie opponents or they can be extended for superior wake control. Importantly, they can also vent their aetheric stores: either as an offensive weapon by firing pellets in all directions or as a defensive tool by briefly creating an aetheric barrier - not as a conventional defensive field but as an offensive field that nullifies incoming shot.

Using a combination of Hard Light and the aura coupled with a pdct_super_phoenix_ii, the Exterior Effect Body forms…

• The Aerobody: A disposable, prehensile lightweight transparent aerodynamic fuselage, acting as wings, shock-cone, chimes and other aerodynamic features for pre, super and hypersonic flight - particularly hypersonic dogfighting.

• The Collidotron: a hardlight vacuum chamber that mixes atmospheric matter (such as air) with antimatter to produce a rocket engine outside of the body of the Winter II with an output so great, it would be considered too dangerous to put inside it.

The ambient wake of plasma around the Winter II as well as its combined field are manipulated through the use of high precision antennae in the frame's construction: shock-vanes, large horns which synchronise CCD fields, improve communications, sculpt plasma wake and double as a sharpened close-range weapon and resonance plates, large parallel strips and flattened arrays resembling stacked razor-blades which serve as thrust-nozzles, plasma manipulators and an emergency cooling system.

• See also: Apparition Wake Array

The Winter II's digital systems and sensors are closer in some ways to those of an organism than a machine.

Commanding the system is a Fasceted Maesus Centralised Computer, running laplace. This computer stretches through the structol systems of the machine, able to repair and self-optimize; as such some Winter II may move or behave or look differently as time goes on, responding to combat experience.

Due to the organic nature of the system, the Lazarus Consortium understands that for political, philosophical, personal or preferential reasons it may be desirable to downgrade to a conventional or computer of another user or nation's choice: Provided it runs LA+ OS or a RICE-Like OS, ARIA-SCS software and required libraries are able to function, the computer will should sufficient though it may not perform as smoothly as a Maesus Computer.

• See computersystems
• See also: Supplemental Subcomputers

Sometimes included with manned-models by request, the Automatic Companion Computer Co-Pilot or autocomp for short is an armored spherical levitating robot with ROM construct intelligence. Able to form a hardlight body around itself in the shape of a person, it is able to administer medical aid, display volumetric images, repair the Winter II in the field and provide psychological companionship to a pilot for the purpose of motivation (mimicking what Nepleslian psychologists call Wilson surrogation).

It can be thought of as a ruggedized and more practical take on Yamatai's sprite technology.

The Winter II uses a number of different sensor packages in order to provide the best range of perception possible, while maintaining a small profile for the frame classification.

This includes:

• A surface-level structol substrate laminate take on the Conventional Lorath Sensor Suite, able to detect IR, UV, thermal scan, light-pulse sonar scanning and provides basic detection. A dedicated set is also included in the face-plate of the frame, re-enforced against attack with a narrow aperture and longer range as was with the original Winter frame with improved fidelity and response-times.

• Multi-space monitoring system: Miniaturized from the original Winter frame via integration with the FTL systems of the Winter II, multispace offers sub/hyperspace, quantum disturbance detections and passive spacial observation. The system is able to send active low power pulses into upper and lower spaces to make advanced assessments of targets, at the risk of revealing its position.

• Dedicated probability detection system: The Winter II improves on the quantum sensors of the original frame which monitored gravity behavior, m-brane stress an ambient sub-atomic behavior in order to determine disturbances in space/time and events of unusually low probability (typically an artificial source) enlarging the system and fitting it in two armored horns upon the head of the frame, rather than the torso. In this way, the frame is able to more quickly make assessments and do so in a wide aperture'stereo' for all-around awareness rather than the narrow aperture 'telescope' format which required direct searches. In doing so, dimensional nesting, pocket-dimensions, FTL systems, transposition systems and TDD use can rapidly be detected.

• Empathic Sensors: Through the use of a synthetic telepathic organ, the Winter monitors the ambient alpha and delta waves given off by nearby organic life forms, by monitoring the emotions given off by a subject in a proximity of 100 meters or less, the Winter II is able to detect feelings of hostility or even the rush of emotions accompanying the moment before a kill. In this way, a pilot can be warned of impending attack or even an opponent's fear. It doubles as a dynamic psionic jamming system, able to detect common jamming techniques to work out of a unit is manned or unmanned.

The Winter II features a sort of 'second pass' evaluation of all input passing through it and is able to provide specialist evaluation similar to the way the visual cortex of the brain is able to 'clean up' information fed along the optic nerve using visual processing centers. While their effectiveness individually is very limited, their combined effectiveness can be thought of as a second pair of eyes - the same way a trained animal (such as dog or horse) being ridden or brought along can 'know' not to go somewhere.

While it isn't entirely effective in finding targets, its anticipation and intuition is very effective, meaning the frame will automatically power up or power down and assume advantageous positions in expectation of a threat.

These include..

• DIIWECS: a way of remembering statistically uncommon signals such as transmissions, emissions or radiance, with the purpose of defeating passive stealth via pattern recognition of emission patterns. While its effectiveness is limited, it can help provide estimates of probable enemy presence or the source of unusual emission very quickly and can be thought of as a machine-level “gut instinct”.
• SDISTAL: A means of baking all the ultra-complex observations of the frame into an array formats understandable to humanoid-style cognition, via graphical depiction and neural connectivity. In much the same way one's awarneess of their environment is a waking dream within the brain populated by observations made by the senses, SDISTAL is a machine-level system working similarly.
• XTAL: A peer to peer battlefield information exchange system
• ACTIVE: A self-awareness of the frame's own emissions against what it thinks the enemy is able to see, able to determine with great accuracy how visible the frame is to many enemy types. A kind of synthetic mathematical weariness and caution, working on conjunction with DIIWECS.
• BASTARDS: A tachyon communications detection and jamming system.
• LEER: Basically DIIWECS for active stealth systems.