Dreaded Punknaught (2020)

Every riot cop's nightmare. Take the engines from three or four downed AV's, weld them into an amalgamation of buses, flatbed trailers, and assorted junk, tack on all the weapons you can scrounge and send it charging into a police line—watch the cops scatter!! A typical Punknaught is capable of hovering a meter or two off the ground and with enough of a start can make fifty kph. They can carry twenty or thirty passengers and a crew of about a dozen. Each Punknaught is unique, and bears its own name.

Punknaughts have been built and used in London, Chicago, New York (twice), Night City, Osaka, and Manila to name the most notorious instances. They are built by gangs to smash police lines, break martial law, and engage in sheer destruction and ultraviolence. A Punknaught is a tenuous combination of machine; few gangs can support one for long, though many try. Typical armament is homemade rockets and light machineguns. Heavier guns weigh too much and eat power for servos and controls.

Game Notes: A punknaught is the streetgang's answer to the Sikorsky-Mitsubishi Dragon—if they can build one. Construction takes from a week to a month, and uses lots of scrap metal and welding torches. As a general rule, each AV engine can lift one bus or flatbed trailer in the assembly. Trade offs can be made for weight to allow more than the absolute minimum of armor, and no more than two gun mounts per unit (one engine's lift capacity) without serious weight problems. Lots of people can crowd on; boostergangs love these things, and love to party with them. Most areas are unarmored; controls, engines, and (hopefully) ammo and fuel are the exception, with an SP of 20 as average. Exact design (weapons available, number of engines) is up to the referee and not the designers! These things are very dramatic, and just the building can make opportunities for many adventures. Rumors exist of more advanced versions being built, but these have been ruthlessly suppressed.