Raiders

Powers and Abilities

The Raiders were a typical CordCo design of that era. As such, they are reminiscent of their more powerful MAULER suit. They use the S-Circuit cybernetic man-machine interface, a key Stark design.

The Raiders technology, whilst solid, does not operate at the level of major Stark International power armour suits. But it can deliver nasty surprises on the offence, and is quite mobile. The “pilots” seemed to be well-trained operators and handled the suits well. They definitely weren’t on the level of Stark, but they were good shots and flew well.

The armoured suits provide light strength enhancement, flight, a radio and a tinted visor. They can be equipped with one of three specialised weapon suites.

1. The selective fire wristbands can shoot flame, lasers, or bullets. They can even shoot green streams of high pressure, highly concentrated acid (often used to destroy enemy weapon systems).
2. The shatterguns create vibrations that can be used as a straight blast or as a pressure wavefront, hammering the target or blasting it away.
3. The force shield is particularly effective against energy attacks, and the syphon net just sucks the electrical power out of what it is covering, leaving even a powerful suit with multiple energy sources such as the Iron Man armour out of juice.
   This even affected chemical systems (the boot jets) though I would assume the problem was actually that the flight control systems were on the blink, not that the exhaust was gone.

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History

CordCo was one of the competitors of Stark International in the field of armaments and power armours in the 1970s and early 1980s. It was founded and headed by Edwin Cord. Given S.I.’s formidable influence and growth, and the sheer genius of lead designer Tony Stark, CordCo found it very hard to compete.

During the early 1980s, Cord used increasingly reckless and illegal measures to win contracts. This backfired. The key customer in that market — S.H.I.E.L.D. — came to view CordCo as being more of a liability than an asset. Cord realised that he might be going the way of other unsuccessful Stark competitors such as Williams Innovation, Cross Technological or Clarke Futuristic.

One of Cord’s desperate stunts to regain S.H.I.E.L.D. contracts took place during the 24^th annual conclave of electronics engineers and innovators in Dallas, TX. Three of Cord’s recent armours, the Raiders, attacked the Stark Industries booth at that convention. Their goal to draw Iron Man in.

The half-backed plan was to have a live product demonstration, and possibly a sales-boosting victory.

Against the Golden Avenger

The first clash was brief. The Raiders gave a decent account of themselves and damaged Iron Man’s repulsors, but they didn’t go that far. They soon had to retreat. They also wrecked the S.I. booth and nearly set fire to the hotel hosting the convention. Yet after watching the videos, the overconfident Cord decided to launch a second attack.

However, Stark was prepared. When the Raiders swept in, all they hit were holographic images. Then Iron Man drew them up in the air to minimise collateral damage. Though the syphon net briefly gave the Raiders the advantage, they were handily defeated.

Cord used footage from the onboard cameras to make a sales pitch to S.H.I.E.L.D., but the procurement guy had already made up his mind about CordCo. When shown the footage, he was aghast at the reckless risks taken in the presence of civilians, and property damage. Cord was thus arrested.

Edwin Cord apparently extricated himself from those difficulties. Thus CordCo remained in business, winning various contracts. These included the program that resulted in the Firepower heavy armour. They also built the armours used by the Jury, with a design philosophy somewhat reminiscent of the Raiders.

Oh, Canada

The Raiders armours and a MAULER armour were later bought by Roxxon Oil. A team was sent to Canada to attack and test the Guardian suit, then worn by a rookie Heather Hudson.

The operatives wearing Raider armour (now called “Reaver” armour) were mauled by Alpha Flight. But that allowed the MAULER-wearing operative to flee and lure Hudson after him. Hudson managed to stop the MAULER after a dogged pursuit. The Roxxon executive seemed pleased with the data gathered during the operation.

Several years later, during the so-called “Armour Wars”, Stark came to realise that the Raiders armours were operated by stolen S-Circuit technology. As a result, they were among the various suits of armour he wrecked to prevent abuse of his invention.

Who was operating Raider armour at that point, and whether new versions using alternatives to the S-Circuit have since been fielded, is unrevealed.

Description

See illustrations.

Personality

These guys seemed to be somewhat gung-ho, ex-military mercs. Other people hired to operate Raider suits would likely be more or less similar. Since hiring post-Romantic painters, entrepreneurial plumbers and Lacanian psychoanalysts would not work as well.

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: Older Iron Man stuff (Marvel Universe).

Helper(s): Darci.