Civilian ground vehicles are sleek and streamlined futuristic wheeled machines, with very little wasted space. Cargo compartments are much smaller than modern vehicles, the average consumer has little need for cargo, almost everything can be fabbed at home. All civilian vehicles are electric, drawing supplemental power from a citywide grid embedded in the road surface. Travel off-grid is facilitated by high-availability recharging stations and extremely efficient batteries.
Elevated Mag-lev trains provide low-cost public transportation within and between urban areas. Most civilians travel long-distances via sub-orbital space-planes, which also do double-duty as transport to Lagrange stations and the moon colonies. Routine transport between colonies in the Inner System is accomplished via large transport ships which carry passengers in cryo-stasis.
Frames are available in civilian and police/military models. A Frame is a single-pilot vehicle approximately 3 meters tall, operated by neural interface with the pilot, in effect becoming an extension of their body. Civilian Frames are used for heavy lifting and construction job, as well as for sports such as the Frame Football league. Fire Departments deploy Frames to assist with difficult fires. Aeroframes are frequently purchased by executives to provide transportation between home and work sites. There is also an active Aeroframe racing circuit.
Battleframes are employed primarily by the military, and the Cybernetic Enforcement Division (CED) of local police departments. Battleframes come in many varieties, for ground, air, and space. A basic ground battleframe can be refitted with a variety of weaponry to deal with any situation. All battleframes are designed as sealed, self-contained environments. Ground-based battleframes are commonly called Gorillas. Combat aeroframes are commonly called Darts, and can be equipped for scouting or combat. Scout oriented battleframes are equipped with thermo-optical camouflage, which makes them very difficult to spot when stationary. Thermo-optical camouflage is not as effective when the user is moving, causing a faint distortion to be visible at their location as the camouflage adjusts to the changing environment. Police battleframes are deployed to deal with criminals riding weaponized Kits. Many spacefaring ships carry vacuum-adapted bipedal battleframes called Shrikes. They are heavily armored andequipped with reaction drives, rail cannons and missiles. Shrikes are designed to act as fighter wings, closing with ships at speed and attacking at close range, or defending their carrier from other battleframe wings.
In some areas, heavier military equipment is employed by the CED for urban pacification duties. The most commonly used heavy combat vehicle is the spidertank; a three-man vehicle outfitted with either a non-lethal crowd control package, or a heavy weapons package. Spidertanks are armored 6-legged walker vehicles. Each leg has a retractable wheel for use when the legs are locked into position. With the wheels retracted, a spidertank is capable of scaling vertical surfaces and traversing broken terrains. Rhino heavy transports, large armored VTOL aircraft armed with a single spinal cannon, are used to deploy 4-man battleframe fire teams. Rhinos are slow moving, and are always deployed with a wing of Darts for defense.
