Y-17 Trauma Harness

The scientists hidden away in their blasted mountain facility near the Mojave Desert had developed numerous new technologies that were both a Boone and a bane to the post-apocalyptic world. These truly mad scientists were responsible for the creation of the Lobotomites, Ghost People, Cazadors and Night Hunters.

Chris Van Deelen is the author of the Skirmisher Publishing LLC sourcebook Creatures of the Tropical Wastes sourcebook and co-author of its Wisdom from the Wastelands game supplement.

No. Enc: 1d6
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 90’ (30’)
AC: 4
HD: 6
Attacks: 2 ranged or 2 melee attacks
Damage: based on weapon
Save: L6
Morale: N/A
Hoard Class: I artifact firearm, 1d6 drugs and VIII (x2)

The scientists hidden away in their blasted mountain facility near the Mojave Desert had developed numerous new technologies that were both a Boone and a bane to the post-apocalyptic world. These truly mad scientists were responsible for the creation of the Lobotomites, Ghost People, Cazadors and Night Hunters.

The Y-17 Trauma Harness was originally designed to lessen the workload of medics and doctors by monitoring the physical condition of the wearer. Once a certain threshold was surpassed, the harness would take over the automaton functions of the body and take the soldier off the field of battle and deliver the wounded individual back to their home base in order to receive the medical attention they require.

nitially the concept was greeted with great enthusiasm as it would help get wounded soldiers off the field of battle all that much sooner and keep medics and doctors out of harm’s way. However after the initial technology had been developed and produced, someone finally came to their senses. These harnesses tended to cause far more damage than what they were designed to prevent!  Many of the wounded should not be moved until they were stabilized and by the harness forcing the body to move, this resulted in far more deaths, which could have been prevented.

ater models were provided with better software routines and the number of preventable deaths dropped to zero, but still many of these creatures can be found wandering the Mojave Desert, lost on an eternal quest to find medical aid. The same scientists have continued to produce the first generation of these harnesses and use them to build up a small army of these creatures that fight alongside the lobotomites in order to act as guards for the facility.

These creatures appear to be men and women clad in a red bodysuit. The boots and gloves are silver and there is a scuba tank-like apparatus attached to the back. The heads are usually clad in an open clear plexiglass bowl. They are always armed with modern weapons.  The one way that someone knows they are not dealing with an oddly clad survivor is that the heads are nothing more than flesh-less skulls. This is very disconcerting the first time these creatures are encountered.

It has been discovered that they are universally hostile. They will open fire on anyone who is not marked as a medic or doctor. They will fight to ensure that the patient inside the harness is safe and out of harm’s way. This is pretty much a moot point when one considers that the patient died many decades ago.

The only time these creatures will not attack or cease fighting is if someone can prove that they are trained medical personnel. This can often by accomplished by producing an appropriate identification card, diagnostic scanner or healing pack (see Mutant Future core book for both items).

These creatures are undead. The bodies have long since turned to bone and only the harness itself holds it together. There is no life or mind, and as such, these creatures are utterly immune to various mutations such as vampiric field and any mental mutations will have no effect, unless these mutations cause physical harm.

The computer that controls the harness is vulnerable to EMP attacks, and if the suit is ever exposed to EMP or electric magnetic pulse, it is allowed a saving throw versus energy. If the saving throw fails, the computer program running the suit is wiped out and the suit is effectively destroyed. Due to the vulnerability to electricity, any electrical attack does double damage and any saving throws against electricity suffer a -2. This goes with any saving throws against EMP as well.

The harness was designed to inject life-saving and stabilizing drugs into the wearer, so typically each suit will have 1d6 doses of various medical drugs still stored away for use in the future. These are typically Antitox, Filter Dose Stimshot A or B, Supergen or even some of the drugs presented in Wisdom from the Wastelands issue 33: Drugs.  The exact drug is left up to the Mutant Lord to decide. Also on top of always carrying one artifact firearm, there is a 50% chance that there will be 1d4 extra magazines or power sources stored on the harness for the weapon, as well as other miscellaneous gear which can be determined by the ML.

Mutations: None

Source: Fallout New Vegas