Cray
01/13/15 07:24 PM
67.8.171.23
|
Heavy Metal Thunder (HMT) is a small mercenary force that is most noted for its lance of assault 'Mechs that heroically turned many a battle along the Capellan-Suns border. The 'Mechs get the glory, and the advertising deals, and the syndicated HPG-distributed reality show, and the merchandising (HMT is never one to miss a revenue stream). One overshadowed key to its success is its team of elite technicians, which keep the venerable war machines not just operational, but also modify them to make them easier to keep operational.
One of the other unsung features of "those 4 assault 'Mechs" is their minimal logistics footprint. The Victor and Battlemasters of the assault lance are almost entirely armed with energy weapons. Their modified Union-class DropShip and its rudely malfunctioning drive, the Le Petomaine, has been retrofitted primarily with lasers. The Slayers that guard their Invader, the Event Horizon, and the escort the Le Petomaine traded AC/10s for a pair of PPCs. The infantry platoon is primarily armed with blazer rifles, except for the SRM squad that supplies "some righteous high order energetics." In a universe where a ton of missile ammunition costs most than a MechWarrior's annual salary and fueling a tank can wreck a merc force's budget, HMT is able to wander the Periphery without watching its accounts slide into the red simply keeping its war machines in fighting form.
HMT's Victor is something of an oddball out of the highly standardized force. If it didn't share an engine with the Slayer aerospace fighters and had a jump capacity in a force lacking proper scout 'Mechs, HMT probably would've sold the rare assault 'Mech for another Battlemaster. Fifteen years of successive refits have made the Victor-HMT slightly more tolerable to the graybearded grognards of the tech squads, with its lasers replaced with Martells (in common with the Battlemasters); its gyro mounts painstakingly rebuilt to take the Battlemaster's more-common model; and its cockpit equipment racks emptied and refilled with Battlemaster targeting and communications gear (and even a BLR-model fold-out waste disposal unit).
HMT is not the first group to experiment on this particular 225-year old Victor, nor are their modifications the largest. During the 30th Century, Defiance Industries on Hesperus II acquired the wreck (under contract to rebuild LCAF battlefield salvage) and only partly rebuilt it before being stymied by a lack of HildCo jump jets and Pontiac Autocannons. The 'Mech was mothballed for several years before Defiance engineers began regularly using it in live-fire testing of weapons, new sensor configurations, and training new hires in BattleMech maintenance. When Defiance did finally acquire HildCo Model 12 jump jets for unrelated purposes, some graying engineer recalled the Victor and its salvage contract. Some under-the-table negotiations with Social Generals in the LCAF allowed Defiance to avoid any legal difficulties and acquire the Victor as "Parts, Salvage, Assault 'Mech, dispositioned to military supplier" for just over 11,000 kroner.
In 2945, Lyran intelligence services acquired old blueprints for a Marik experimental weapon, the Binary Laser Cannon (aka Blazer; see Tactical Operations p. 319). With some of the best (surviving) research & development facilities in the Inner Sphere, Defiance Industries was awarded the contract to evaluate the Blazer. Tharkad had assumed the weapon was abandoned by the Free Worlds League as unproducible lostech after a short run at the end of the First Succession Wars. However, once Defiance engineers got their hands on the blueprints and did some preliminary mining of their own databases, they sent a report correcting the government:
First, the Blazer had been initially developed and tested by the Lyran Commonwealth in 2801 as a potential, lower tech alternative to lost Star League advanced PPC technology. However, the Blazer had demonstrated unsolvable heat problems, a modest gain in damage, and reduced range compared to Star League PPCs (or even conventional PPCs). So, second, the Lyrans deliberately leaked the under-performing weapon to the FWL in 2807. This intelligence operation ("Blaze of Glory") served a multitude of functions: it revealed a FWL spy network in the Commonwealth, which blew its cover to acquire the "super gun;" it served to distract vital FWL military production of energy weapons from PPCs to the white elephant "blazer," and the Commonwealth was able to destroy vital FWL PPC suppliers that had been left under-defended with the shift in priorities; and it saddled the FWLM with a less effective weapon in the waning days of the First Succession War. Operation Blaze of Glory was so successful that the FWL was starved of PPCs even into the 31st Century, when it was importing PPCs from the Capellan Confederation.
The Lyran Commonwealth shrugged off its poor knowledge of secret spying operations from 140 years earlier and informed Defiance Industries that the development contract was still valid. Was the Blazer useful in the 2900s? It was no longer competing against Star League weapons. Defiance took the government money and set about cobbling together a pair of its advanced Thunderbolt A5M large lasers, used on the Zeus. After test bed trials that made pleasingly large holes in armor targets, Defiance was funded for a field test and pulled its Victor out of the clutches of the Coatings and Visual Defenses department, which was trying to use the Victor to test the theory that fewer MechWarriors would shoot at a 'Mech painted to look like a clown under the theory of "Childhood Adoration Harm Avoidance."
The work performed on the Victor to accommodate the Blazer was excellent. The oft-used engineering test mount once occupied by the Pontiac 100 was finally, permanently replaced with a new arm (borrowed from a Zeus) for the Blazer. With significant weigh savings, significant number of heat sinks were added and the armor thickened. Secondary weapons were left untouched. The entire 'Mech was overhauled to factory quality. It began field testing in 2950 on a series of low-risk patrols and raids with other Lyran forces, some of which were also retrofitted with Blazers. Eventually (2953), the average performance of the Blazer and its extreme heat burden led the LCAF to conclude the Blazer was a dead end.
The Victor was released to Loki, which successfully used the "assault 'Mech with an experimental super gun" in an intelligence operation to reveal a Marik spy ring and divert FWL military production into building the Blazer for several years. (Marik's SAFE, never the brightest bulb among Inner Sphere intelligence services, also did not remember Operation Blaze of Glory. However, it had a better excuse than the Lyrans: it never knew about Operation Blaze of Glory, for which it had fallen hook, line, and sinker in the 2800s.)
After going through several hands in the Free Worlds League, its final owner was a mercenary hired by Heavy Metal Thunder to round out their assault 'Mech lance in 3002. The unique Blazer cannon has been relatively maintainable because of its use of common parts from the Thunder A5M large laser. HMT is lukewarm toward the 'Mech; it does give them an assault-sized "scout" 'Mech, for certain loose definitions of "scout," but it is undergunned compared to the rest of the lance or, really, most assault 'Mechs besides a Banshee or Charger. After the battles against the mysterious invaders on Wynn's Roost (Periphery, ex-Outworld's Alliance), the AFFS offered to help HMT trade the 'Mech for another Battlemaster in a general exchange of salvage, but HMT has stuck with it for now.
Code:
VICTOR VTR-9B-HMT
Mass: 80 tons
Tech Base: Inner Sphere
Chassis Config: Biped
Chassis: HildCo Type V
Power Plant: 320 Pitban
Walking Speed: 43.2 km/h
Maximum Speed: 64.8 km/h
Jump Jets: Hildco Model 12
Jump Capacity: 120 meters
Armor: Durallex Heavy
Armament:
1 Thunderbolt A9M Twin Large Laser
2 Martell Medium Lasers
1 Holly Short Range Missile Pack (4)
Manufacturer: Hildco Interplanetary
Communications System: HartfordCo COM 4000
Targeting and Tracking System: HartfordCo XKZ 1
================================================================================
Equipment Type Rating Mass
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internal Structure: Standard Structure 130 points 8.00
Engine: Standard Fusion Engine 320 22.50
Walking MP: 4
Running MP: 6
Jumping MP: 4 Standard
Jump Jet Locations: 2 CT, 1 RT, 1 LT 3.00
Heat Sinks: Single Heat Sink 20 10.00
Heat Sink Locations: 4 LT, 2 LL, 2 RL
Gyro: Standard 4.00
Cockpit: Standard 3.00
Actuators: L: SH+UA+LA+H R: SH+UA+LA
Armor: Standard AV - 232 14.00
Internal Armor
Structure Factor
Head 3 9
Center Torso 25 34
Center Torso (rear) 10
L/R Torso 17 26
L/R Torso (rear) 7
L/R Arm 13 26
L/R Leg 17 34
================================================================================
Equipment Location Heat Critical Mass
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Binary Laser (Blazer) Cannon RA 16 4 9.00
2 Medium Lasers LA 6 2 2.00
SRM 4 LT 3 1 2.00
Ammo (SRM) 25 LT 0 1 1.00
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
|
GiovanniBlasini
01/13/15 07:40 PM
172.56.40.75
|
As much as I like it, I would probably strongly consider dropping the SRM rack for another trio of medium lasers. First, it simplifies logistics. Second, in close quarters, it gives you five forward-firing medium lasers you can use, in place of the blazer: in effect, your blazer is hole-puncher, while the medium lasers are critseekers.
This is a prime example, though, of how, in an era of single heat sinks, the blazer isn't a replacement for a PPC or large laser, but an AC/10 or AC/20 replacement, meant to be mounted singly, and backed with other weapons.
Member of the Pundit Caste
"Which side are we on? We're on the side of the demons, Chief. We're evil men in the gardens of paradise, sent by the forces of death to spread devastation and destruction wherever we go. I'm surprised you didn't know that." -- Col. Saul Tigh, BSG2003
|
Cray
01/13/15 09:14 PM
67.8.171.23
|
Quote:
GiovanniBlasini writes:
As much as I like it, I would probably strongly consider dropping the SRM rack for another trio of medium lasers. First, it simplifies logistics.
Oh, yep, definitely, I was just reminding the players of that when they had an opportunity to swap some Unidentified Mystery 'Mechs with the AFFS and they were considering ammo-using designs.
Out of character, the SRM 4 just got overlooked. (The MegaMek file also has an embarrassing absence of armor on the right rear torso I just noticed. That probably explains some of the crits since I always send backbiters after the assault 'Mechs) Now, it's flavor. HMT has expanded to 2 'Mech lances (two PHX-1Ds, 1 Victor-HMT, and 5 Battlemasters), and there's more medium lasers than you can shake a stick at. There's also an SRM infantry squad, so there's some ammo commonality.
Quote:
This is a prime example, though, of how, in an era of single heat sinks, the blazer isn't a replacement for a PPC or large laser, but an AC/10 or AC/20 replacement, meant to be mounted singly, and backed with other weapons.
And the Blazer has a window of opportunity for replacing AC/10s and AC/20s that lasts until the HPPC is introduced. 
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
|
|
|
Extra information
|
0 registered and 164 anonymous users are browsing this forum.
Moderator: Nic Jansma, Cray, Frabby, BobTheZombie
Print Topic
|
Forum Permissions
You cannot start new topics
You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled
UBBCode is enabled
|
Topic views: 3140
|
|
|
|
|
|
|