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It is perhaps completely unsurprising that the most popular medevac meccanico among the Mafia is produced by the Colombo family. Considered by many to be the weakest of New York's Five Families after tearing itself apart in not one, but three, civil wars, their investment in and development of the Tarantello might be the only thing which allowed enough Colombi to survive to call themselves a family still. Hell, in 2000, the Commissione were actively planning to change Five Families into Four. Considering the Bonnano family's release of the Cimaruta-class meccanico in 2005, some have suggested that the Colombi bought their aid in returning to their seat in the Commissione with the plans and technology of the Tarantella.
A rather no-nonsense design, at least in terms of its mechanics and systems, the Tarantella resembles the spider for which it was named, with four legs on one side and four on the other. Each leg bulges with the shape of a ducted fan near its foot. The body is slightly ovoid between the two sets of legs, with a dome capping it to hold the meccanico's sensors and comms. Just beneath the body can be seen the thin profile of a folded pod, a rectangular protrusion on the underbelly. Most often witnessed in the midst of a raging gun battle or the aftermath of a bombing or somesuch, the Tarantella uses those fans on its legs to boost its jumps, leaping into the worst of it over the person it has come to rescue. The pod then extends down, forming a double wall of armor, as any bullets or shrapnel would have to get past the meccanico's legs before being tested against the pod's walls. Often trained in emergency medicine as well as meccanico piloting, the driver of the Tarantella will then pop out, retrieve the wounded person, attach them to the medical equipment, and hop back into the cockpit to retract the pod and jump away once more.
They best be quick about it, as the Tarantella's lack of any non-ablative armor leaves it vulnerable to prolonged damage or repeated trips into active threat ones. Combined with its miniscule capacity ~ each Tarantella can only hold a single rescued patient ~ this leaves its services as something of a luxury. The average associate or even made man would do well to make other arrangements should they fall, as the Tarantelle are likely to come only for their bosses, capos, and consiglieri. Since the release of the Bonanno Cimaruta, its ability to perform mass evacuations have allowed it to become the Tarantella's primary competition. Being significantly more expensive than its parent design has prevented it from totally usurping the Tarantella's place, of course.
Subassemblies: Eight legs, full-rotation turret, underbody pod.
Drivetrain: 100 kW motive power leg drivetrain, in legs.
Thrusters: Eight ducted fan thrusters, each with 250 lbs. thrust, one in each leg.
Cockpit: Basic, with compact, genius, high-capacity computer (Complexity 4), in body. complexity 2 Computer Navigation, Complexity 2 Damage Control, Complexity 1 Datalink, and Complexity 2 Routine Vehicle Operation programs.
Sensors: 5-mile range PESA in turret.
Miscellaneous Equipment: Emergency support unit (p. VE68), stretcher pallet (p. VE68).
Comsuite: Advanced, in turret.
Power Plant: 100.74 kW nuclear power unit in body powers all systems for six months.
Cargo Space: 5 cf in body with load of 200 lbs.
Volumes: Turret 1.64 cf, pod 45 cf, legs 5.235 cf each, body 50.1464 cf.
Structure and Hit Points: Medium frame strength, advanced materials. Transformable. Two configurations: “pickup/dropoff” (no subassemblies folded), “transport” (pod folded). Turret 14 HP, pod 150 HP, legs 29 HP each, body 150 HP.
Surface Features: Sealed.
Armor: PD 4, DR 28 fireproof ablative.
Statistics: Loaded weight 4204.96 lbs. Empty weight 3804.96 lbs. Loaded mass 2.10238 tons. Mecha volume 138.6664 cf. Size Modifier +3, pod +2, turret -2, legs 0. Price $1,973,834.80. HT 12.
ST and Reach: Body ST 300.
Dimensions: 10 feet 10.3068 inches tall, 7 feet 11.736 inches diameter (length/width).
Ground Performance: Ground speed 85 mph, gMR 1.25, gSR 3, ground Move 12/42. Jump-capable.
La Nonna con Tredici Macchie
"The Grandmother with Thirteen Spots", Ravenna Bellini was born in 1957 with a face full of birthmarks blotching her countenance. A long-time strega of the Colombo family who came into her own in the early 1990s during the Third Colombo Civil War, her maneuverings to lead the family as its boss is one of the more surprising consequences of Carmine Persico's March 2019 death. Popular with the Florida branch of the Colombo family, she leads her small faction from within her trusted Tarantella meccanico.
Known to have great proficiency with the decans of Atrax and Phthenoth, as well as some with Alleborith, Kumeatêl, and Sphandôr, of course, and increasingly with Alath as she's aged, rumors have often claimed that Ravenna has delved into Anostêr, Bianakith, Kurtaêl, and Tepsisem as well. It is widely assumed (and almost certainly correctly) that the old woman has established a long and powerful blood connection to her meccanico, granting a +3 to her effective skill using its enchantments.
Ravenna has had a sound system installed into her Tarantella's body, over which she often plays the traditional music of the tarantella. Infamously, she and her daughter have enchanted this sound system so that anyone who hears its song is compelled to whip themselves into the frenzied complexities of tarantism, dancing wildly like the Sicilian ladies of old (a limited version of Mass Suggestion that cost half as much energy for only allowing a single possible suggestion). Their ceremonies and spells over several years have also improved the meccanico's defenses (Deflect increases its PD to 5 and Fortify increases its DR to 31). The flow of mana through the Tarantella's structure ensures that anyone within heals incredibly quickly (Major Healing). Ravenna has installed a 100-terabyte medical database into her meccanico, upgrading its Complexity to 2 to improve its predictive and associative ability to make itself useful on the fly, as well as a terabyte of hacker-stolen dossiers on other Mafiosi, including confidential informants and undercover police.
Thirteen women painted lavender in a classical Roman style dance wildly across La Nonna con Tredici Macchie's meccanico, prominently kicking up their feet in a field of poppy flowers all crimson, red, and orange. Four of the women hold white mirrors, four wield cerulean-blue swords, four wave rose-colored wands, and a lone dancer among them brandishes an orange snake in her hand. Each of the women is named in Enochian with the name of an archangel, saint, or Roman god associated with healing and protection. A blue cord stretches between them, dotted with knots; nowhere can be seen the ends of the cord. Apple, orange, and palm trees arch above them, from whose branches hang bulbs of garlic and numerous spiders, as well as the webs of the latter. In the negative space, against a background of deep wine-purple, sigils composed of various combinations of Greek crosses (looking like plus signs with their equal arms), downward-pointing arrows, squares, and pentacles are drawn in white, red, and orange. A tin statue of an eagle landing sits atop its turret.
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