Tanker

“Age of mechs is over,” huh? That’s what they all say, every damn generation, right up until something big and angry rolls over the horizon and starts flattening cities again. Then suddenly everyone remembers the Tankers. The loud ones. The walking fortresses. The maniacs who think piloting a multi-ton death machine solo counts as a lifestyle choice. You don’t hire a Tanker because you need transport, you hire one because you want the loudest thing on your side when the world starts ending.

Thing is, Tankers never really left. They just got faster, sleeker, meaner. Some fly, some crawl, some dig through the spirit-damned ground and some walk on legs the size of apartment blocks. Doesn’t matter what shape it takes, if it’s got a gun bigger than a shuttle and someone inside who calls it “baby,” it’s a Tanker rig. And those pilots? They don’t sit in cockpits — they wear them. Hooked up, synced in, body and machine in lockstep until you can’t tell which one’s steering the other. You can feel it when they’re close. The hum in the ground, the static in your teeth. That’s a Tanker, grinning somewhere, lining up a shot.

They live heavy. Always have. Can’t help it. Even when they’re planetside, they’ve got half a dozen sidearms and a shoulder cannon that probably violates three treaties. Tankers love their guns the way poets love heartbreak. It’s messy, loud, and they’ll talk about it for hours. You’ll never catch one without a harness full of custom mods, extra mags, and some ridiculous grav-rig that lets them haul ordnance no one else can lift. Ask them why and they’ll tell you, “Because I can.” Then they’ll prove it.

But where they really shine is in the gunnery bay. You ever seen a Tanker light something up? You don’t forget it. They don’t just hit targets — they announce them. Every tracer, every paint mark, every cursed word over comms turns into a homing beacon for everyone else. One Tanker fires, and the whole squad hits bullseye. It’s like watching an orchestra, if the instruments were all cannons and the conductor hated you personally.

You can tease ‘em all you want about being outdated, but when the lights start flickering and something big enough to have a council representative starts moving your way, you’ll be glad there’s a Tanker around. They’ve been here since the first contact wars and they’ll be here after the last lights go out. Maybe the age of mechs is over for the rest of you, kid, but for a Tanker, it never even slowed down.


- Cpt. Evangeline 'Angel' Eversong, Away Team 1 of the Argonaut, Mark 5876.

Tankers don’t believe in “too big.” If it fits in the hands, or doesn't, for that matter, it’s a sidearm. They favour weapons built for things with more brawn than brains: anti-armour cannons, repeater rifles the size of fence posts, launchers meant for fortified emplacements. Doesn’t matter. They’ll rig a sling, throw on a mag-harness, and call it portable. Their rides are the same story, every one of them bristling with guns that could flatten a building. And ask any Tanker worth their grease: a vehicle gun’s just a field weapon waiting to be unbolted. Give them a few seconds, some percussive maintenance, and something worth shooting at, and you’ll find out exactly how loose their definition of “mounted” really is.

Trait.

You may install Weapons one [Class] higher than normally allowed into [Weaponry] [Components]. You may only ever have one over-[Classed] Weapons installed in this manner.

For Example: You can install a [Class] 2 [Flashrifle] into a [Class] 1 [Super-Heavy Weapons Pod] [Component].

In addition, you can store and [Equip] a single [Class] 2 Weapon.

Furthermore, you gain the Hell Yeah Double Action:

Tankers don’t travel light, they bring the whole damn armoury. Even the scrawniest one can haul gear like a cargo loader, muscles working on some secret leverage the rest of us never figured out. Folks joke they’re “farm strong,” but that doesn’t quite cover it; they’re trained to move heavy things fast, uphill, through crossfire, and somehow keep a hand free for a sidearm. Harnesses dangle from them like extra limbs, each one holding a gun, a scope, or something that explodes. Need a tripod? They’ve got three. Need it set up before you finish the sentence? Already done. You can blindfold a Tanker in the dark, dump a crate of mixed parts at their feet, and they’ll have a functioning weapons platform running before you remember to duck.

Trait.

You reduce the Severity of the Set Up Ritual by 10. At Tanker ranks 3, 5, 7, & 9, the reduction is increased to 20, 30, 40 & 50, respectively.

In addition, you increase your effective Brawn for the purposes of meeting the Requirements for Equipment by 1. At Tanker ranks 3, 5, 7 & 9, this bonus is increased to 2, 3, 4 & 5, respectively.

Furthermore, you gain 1 Holster. At Tanker ranks 3, 5, 7 & 9, you the amount of additional Holsters is increased to 2, 3, 4 & 5, respectively.

A good Tanker doesn’t just hit targets, they make everyone else hit them too. Their shots are loud, bright, and impossible to ignore, laced with tracers, EM painters, or whatever tech keeps the rest of the squad on the same page. Once a Tanker lights something up, it glows like a flare across every channel worth listening to, visual, thermal, astral, doesn’t matter. The rest of the crew just follows the signal and rains hell. That’s why every armoured push keeps a Tanker at the front: they see first, shoot first, and make sure nobody misses. Some call it strategy, some call it madness, but whatever you call it, it’s damn effective.

Trait.

After successfully Attacking a Target with a Weapon, until the start of your next Turn, you and any [Allies] that Attack the same Target, with a Weapons, [Spell] or [Invocation], gain a Bonus Die D4 to the Attack.

In addition, you also apply the [Marked] Conditions to the Target until the start of your next Turn.

• At Tanker rank 4, Upgrade the Bonus Die to a D6.
• At Tanker rank 6, Upgrade the Bonus Die to a D8.
• At Tanker rank 8, Upgrade the Bonus Die to a D10.
• At Tanker rank 10, Upgrade the Bonus Die to a D12.

Trait.

You gain a Job Die. A Job Die is a Bonus Die that is added to Checks, Attacks or Saves that you are Proficient or Resistant in, respectively. Your Job Die is a D4.

If you gain an additional instance of this Ability, and you already have a Job Die, you do not gain another; it is Upgrade instead.

At Tanker rank 4, 6, 8 & 10, you gain an additional instance of this Ability.

Trait.

You gain an additional Proficiency. This can be Swagger, Presence, Initiative, Reaction or any Skills.

Please Note: You can select any of the above options, not just the ones listed on the Starting Package, so long as you are not already Proficiency in it.

At Tanker rank 5, 7 & 9, you gain an additional instance of this Ability.

Every spacer knows how to fire their guns. Only a Tanker knows how to make them sing. An Alpha Strike is what happens when experience, timing, and a total disregard for safety meet in perfect harmony. Most crews spend their whole careers learning to avoid overloading the sub-systems with rolling bursts, watching heat gauges, praying the generator doesn’t turn itself inside out. Tankers do the opposite. They study the hum, memorize the flicker in the diagnostics, feel the lag between charge and recoil. Then, right at the edge of meltdown, they pull every trigger they’ve got. For a few glorious seconds the whole rig becomes a sun, dozens of guns, all spitting death in perfect sync, the air shaking with the sound of it. It’s reckless, it’s unsafe, but when the smoke clears, there’s usually nothing left standing. They didn’t invent the broadside, but they sure as shit perfected it.

Double Action.

You gain the Alpha Strike Ability:

Space fights don’t happen in straight lines, and Tankers learned that the hard way. They spend their lives tracking things that move faster than thought, fighters, interceptors, Orcish Windriders, you name it, and they still manage to land the shot. They don’t aim at a target; they aim at where the target’s about to be, three heartbeats from now, across half a sky. While everyone else is still calculating trajectory, a Tanker’s already fired, and by the time the shell arrives, it meets the mark dead centre. They read motion like language, feel gravity wells and thrust signatures the way others feel a punch coming. Regardless of whether they’re dogfighting in the void or duelling it out with a tweaked-out chrome junkie in some dingy alleyway, Tankers never miss twice. You can call it instinct, experience, or sorcery, but whatever it is, it turns every battlefield into their shooting range.

Trait.

When you perform Distant Attacks with Weapons or [Weaponry] [Components], you do so under the effects of the Arc Trait.