Based on the monowheel in Iain M. Banks novel 'Against a Dark Background'.

Based on the monowheel in Iain M. Banks novel, 'Against a Dark Background'.

Speed: 350 km/h
Acceleration: 50 km/h/s
Armour: 5 + 5d
Fuel: Fusion
Range: 2000 km
Cargo: 100kg
People: 1/1
Cost: 30
Tech Level: 8
Length: 4m
Width: 1.5m
Sensors: Radar (1), Infrared (1), EMS (1)
Weapons: Variable, capable of carrying 4 normal or 2 support weapons, always energy based, examples include Gatling Laser, Blaster Cannon and Mass Disruptor.
Vitality Levels: Ruin/-8/-6/-4/-2/0/0/0/0/0/0
Equipment:On board think machine. The Monowheel is 'smart', but not sentient, and provides the following facilities:

Voice control: -4 init, goal of 9 for driving maneuvers, can be controlled via radio, range of about 10 km
Manual control: +1 on all driving maneuvers
Virus control (see below): +3 on all driving maneuvers OR a drive skill of 5, whichever is higher. The communication range is upto 500m
Autopilot: Will drive the monowheel on it's own given initial instructions, can acieve nothing complex (Goal of 4). This also provides crash avoidance, best route detection and automapping
Auto Targeting: Goal of 5 or +2 to hit with onboard weapons (Dx + Warfare(Gunnary))

Autorepair: The built in nanite repair system can remove 1 non-vital vitality point of damage per hour, however, it cannot fix vital damage.

Description: The Monowheel was developed in the middle of the 2nd Republic by a forgotten weapons manufacturer. It was sold widely due to it's versatility but was mostly used for scouting and exploration of new areas due to it's all-terrain capabilities. It was prefered over the anti-gravity driven competition as because it was ground based it's enrgy consumption was a fraction of those exploration vehicles that flew. For the very same reasons it was used by the Church as a hunter/killer for tracking down dangerous fugitive heretics, once equiped with the necessary weaponry and armour.

The vehicle was mostly controlled by a smart, but not sentient, think machine that was capable of controlling the highly complex vehicle using the users simple guidance and provided such facilities as automatically avoiding collisions, plotting best routes and controlling the wheel to provide optimum performance and traction. The wheel itself was made of an adaptive material the technology of which has long since been lost. It was capable of taking any shape, texture and properties within very little time to the extent that to propel the vehicle it didn't truely rotate, more changed the surface so that it 'moves'.

Like many vehicles of the day it could follow voice commands and/or manual control but the most effective method was via a direct link with the pilot's neural system. This was possible by having the pilot 'infected' with a Crystalline Virus that embedded itself in the nervous system and allowed communication to and from the vehicle via a method no longer understood.

There are very few of these vehicles still in existance and contain many mysteries of the 2nd Republic, as such they are EXTREMELY valuable and much sought after.