The Clan Upgrade

The Clan Upgrade
Story information
Author	Matthew Cross
Pages	5
Type	Short Story
Product	Shrapnel Issue 9
Content
Era	Dark Age Era
Agency	New Avalon Institute of Science
Universe Date	9 October 3125
Preceded by	The Art of Salvage
Followed by	Inner Sphere Ingenuity

The Clan Upgrade is a transcript of an in-universe lecture held by the New Avalon Institute of Science's College of Military Science on the underlying reasons for the superiority of Clan weapon technology. It was written by Matthew Cross and published in the ninth issue of Shrapnel.

Plot summary

Dr Kiran Suzuki starts the fourteenth of a series of lectures as part of "BME 210: Advanced Weaponry Engineering for MechWarriors" by announcing that in-leu of his usual lecture at this time of year on the advances the Clans have made to common Inner Sphere weapons and equipment, that the NAIS has instead mandated a guest speaker - Star Captain Ariadne, a ristar from Clan Sea Fox - which he has accepted in return for hands-on access to a Clan Rotary Autocannon in his private lab.

The overly eager Ariadne begins the lecture proudly relating every single area where so-called ClanTech is superior, but when told she has limited time Ariadne then reveals that Clan advances largely boil down to two things - superior advanced material science and enhanced software engineering. The harshness of the Kerensky Cluster forced early Clan scientists and engineers to turn to hyper-advanced manufacturing technologies and advance material research projects to do more with less resources, additionally unlike more robust Inner Sphere equipment which is expected to survive potential centuries as seen in the Succession War era, Clan weaponry has much shorter lifespans with the expectation of recycling and repair mitigating this limitation.

With regards the software side, it is the real key for how a Sea Fox produced Series 2b ER Medium Laser which has the same form factor and similar power and data connectors as the Martell and Magna Mk II has improved range and performance. Though a Federated Suns manufactured ER Medium Laser boasts higher range compared to the standard weapon, enhanced controller units which better route coolant in real time allow Clan models to output more damage. Again superior software, along with a little Clan brashness and indifference to shrapnel, is what negates the minimum range of Clan Long-Range Missile launchers as well.

Noting that Dr Suzuki advised that the cadets were well acquainted with the Inner Sphere family of PPCs, Ariadne focuses on how the Clan ER PPC achieves its fifty percent increase in damage, revealing its not any "magic" but yet again superior material science and refined engineering reducing weight while increasing charged-particle density compared to Star League models. Recognizing that the cadets are disappointed at the rather mundane and simple explanations devoid of any mythical secrets, Ariadne concludes the lecture by announcing she has also brought eight of the Sea Foxes' brand new Series 6b ER medium lasers which have been mounted on two of the students Blackjack training OmniMechs to make their regularly scheduled range session a bit more hot, while also eagerly offering to show a holovid of her Trial of Position in which she dispatched three 'Mechs in less than five minutes.

Featured Characters

• Dr. Kiran Suzuki
• Cadet Perry (mentioned)
• Star Captain Ariadne

Featured BattleTech

• Atlas (mentioned)
• Blackjack OmniMech (mentioned)
• Nova Prime (mentioned)
• Nova Cat (mentioned)
• Timber Wolf Prime (mentioned)
• Warhammer (mentioned)

Notes

• The characters Dr Kiran Suzuki by 2019 Clan Invasion crowdfunding campaign backer Jonathan Lung and Cadet Perry by backer Jeff Perry.