Fast Roping
Strong Hands Required
Fast Roping is a variation of rapelling, but they have only one thing in common: they both use ropes. After that the similarities cease. In a rapelling descent, you wear a harness. In fast roping the only thing you wear is your gear that you take with you for your mission and a pair of heavy reinforced leather gloves, you don't have the luxury of a harness to hold you. Fast roping relies solely on your hand strength, the rope you descend by is usually 1 inch (2.5cm) thick and either 90 or 50 feet (27 or 15 meters) long. The top end is attached to a metal pole that sticks approximately 3 feet (1 meter) out of the delivery vehicle. When its time to drop the troops, the delivery vehicle hovers above the drop zone either at 80 or 40 feet (depending on the length of the rope) and waits for the troops to get to the ground. To get to the ground, you put on your gloves, make sure your gear is all nice and secure, grab hold of the rope with both hands and throw yourself out the door. Your body weight will cause you to drop very quickly, usually about 10 feet (3 meters) per second. Now whatever you do, don't let go of the rope, unless of course you think the fall won't hurt you. After sliding halfway down the rope, its time to start squeezing. Squeeze, and hard, because your hands are the only thing slowing you down. If you have weak hands, get ready for a crash landing. Strong hands are necessary to slow you down to a manageable speed. If done correctly, you can actually get your gloves to smoke from the friction of the rope. If performed correctly, a squad of men can be deployed and ready for action in under 5 seconds. This maneuver is great for deploying troops to the roof of a building or similar confined spaces, however it is suitable only when the delivery vehicle can get right up to the target. It is quite dangerous for the DV because is has to stay in relatively the same position for upwards of 30 seconds. During this time it is vulnerable to surface-to-air attacks. This insertion is used when the delivery vehicle can not land at the DZ for one reason or another. If the DV can land at the DZ it usually does. Image |
Cost: 20 Availability: 1 Game Effect: +2 physical (hands only) Capsule: Your generic heavy leather gloves. Nothing special about them, available on nearly all planets and reasonably cheap. These gloves protect your hands from getting nasty rope burns on the way down the rope.
The Fast Rope Type: Generic Rope Cost: 100 / 120 (50ft / 90ft) Availability: 1 Capsule: Next to its usage, there is nothing special about this rope. It comes in two lengths, 50 and 90 feet (15 and 27m) and is 1 inch (3cm) in diameter. It can support up to 1 metric ton (2200 lbs).
The Delivery Vehicle (DV) Substitute your favorite vehicle here, it must be able to hover in mid air and have a door-sized opening through which the troops can drop to the ground. |