JasonAshman @JasonAshman@qoto.org

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In-Universe Mech Highlight: The Rifleman and the Jagermech (SLDF era)

Rifleman
Introduced: 2505
Mass: 60 tons
Max Speed: 64 kph
Jump Capacity: n/a

Jagermech
Introduced: 2774
Mass: 65 tons
Max Speed: 65 kph
Jump Capacity: n/a

One of the earliest battlemechs ever produced, the Rifleman was a purpose-built fire-support mech from a different age of warfare. In its earliest, primative form, the mech, conceived as a 50-ton fire-support mech with an all-energy loadout, was a poor performer that ran hot constantly, although it was noted that the Rifleman's state-of-the-art Garret D2j targeting and tracking system did make it ideal for tracking and defending against aerospace assets.

As newer technology was invented, PPCs replaced the lasers in its arms, and more heatsinks were added, although the mech continued to run hot, and its light armor became problematic when faced off against Thunderbolts, and later Warhammers and Marauders, which could withstand the Rifleman's initial onslaught, all the while while picking apart its thin armor. The light armor forced the Rifleman to run hotter and hotter, and begin to conserve the PPC usage, at which point it would be picked apart by the bigger, more powerful mechs.

Because of its laundry list of flaws, the Rifleman soon found itself outclassed in its original fire-support role, and relegated to second line duties. However, while the mech proved itself to be a poor front-line fighter, its D2j tartgeting computer, despite being older than the Star League, continued to be one of the most powerful and accurate anti-aircraft targeting systems, and Garret's constant refining of the platform only served to allow it to carve out a niche as the most advanced anti-aircraft system in existence.

By the 28th century, the Rifleman and it's unmistakable rotating propeller-shaped targeting system had morphed from a failed fire-support mech to being the definitive anti-aircraft platform in the Inner Sphere. In a time when a focus on combined arms warfare and specialist mechs that fit into that combined arms approach was reaching its apex, a lance of Rifleman providing covering a company or batallion of mechs, armor of infantry against air attack was a common sight.

In the 2760s, Kallon Industries redesigned the Rifleman, moving away from fire support to a focus solely on anti-aircraft protection. The result, the ubiquitous RFL-3N, added ten tons to its frame and swapped the PPCs in each arm for paired large lasers and AC/5 autocannons. The AC/5s in particular had proven to be deadly anti-aircraft weapons, and pairing them with the Garret D2j system made them even deadlier, cementing the Rifleman as the mech to be feared if you were an Aerospace fighter or VTOL on an attack run.

However, the venerable Rifleman still ran hot, and still suffered from paper-thin armor. While heat could be managed, and light armor worked for a mech that wouldn't be seeing direct fire, the Rifleman still posessed a glaring deficiency: The limited ammunition supply- a single ton in total for both of the twin autocannons- meant that, away from SLDF supply lines, the Rifleman's ammo bins quickly ran dry, and the mech itself then became a hot, poorly armored liability. Finally, at two-and-a-half centuries old, and one of the first mechs ever built, Kallon considered that the Rifleman line might simply be maxed out, and that an improvement was needed; something that tackled the RFL's three major problems: armor, heat and ammo.

Strangely enough, the fall of the Star League saved the Rifleman; the mech, having been produced in quantity for centuries, was common and readily available. Unlike its Royal Upgrade the Rifleman II, the RFL-3N used almost no advanced technology, so it was never downgraded or required weapons to be replaced in the face of the Succession Wars. While the Rifleman II was a vastly superior anti-aircraft mech, it was only produced for four decades in limited numbers, and what RFL-3N-2s that werent destroyed in Operation Chieftain or what left in the Exodus was quickly lost to history in the opening days of the Succession Wars.

The 3N, however, persisted.

The Garret tracking system- the only advanced tech on the mech, and what truly made the Rifleman such an anti-air threat- was produced by more than two dozen factories spread across numerous planets, and this decentralized manufacturing made it one of the rare examples of sophisticated technology to survive the destruction of the Succession Wars.

Unfortunately, the loss of the SLDF and the destruction brought by the Succession Wars turned warfare from one fought on an Army/Corps/Division/Brigade scale to that of a lance/company/batallion/regiment scale, and removed specialized mech from their main roles. Where once mechs could be built as specialists designed to fill a specific battlefield role in the movements of grand combined arms divisions and brigades, the Succession wars quickly broke down the battlespace to more primitive small-unit actions, and in these company-level actions, the generalist was king. As technological knowledge was lost, advanced weapons vanished from the battlefield, and every mech available was thrown into the fray regardless of how ill-suited they were for the fighting.

These events forced the Rifleman back to the front lines, where it remains to this day, and where, over the last few centuries, it has acquired a bad reputation. The circumstances of war have demanded that the Rifleman play a role for which is was not designed, and it has proven itself poorly equipped for that.

The Rifleman remains a mech out-of-time, destined to serve in a role it was never designed for, but bound to by sheer ubiquity in a time of scarcity.

LEGACY: As mentioned above, the SLDF created a Royal variant of the Rifleman, the Rifleman II. First produced in 2720, it added a further 20 tons to the mech's frame, using Endo Steel to compensate. The extra tonnage, combined with an XL engine, allowed the mech to keep the 64km/hr speed, while increasing armor. It also traded the AC/5s for the dangerous LB 10-x autocannons, and upgraded the large lasers to large pulse lasers. 14 double heatsinks kept the mech running very cool. While considered to be the pinnacle of mech-based anti-aircraft platforms, it was to be a superior flash in the pan; produced only in limited numbers, most were destroyed in Operation Chieftain and the subsequent battle to retake Terra from Stefan Amaris. The few that survived either disappeared with Kerensky in the Exodus or were destroyed early in the 1st Succession War.

The Rifleman III, a one-off "wonder weapon" prototype produced at the request of Stefan Amaris while he retained a chokehold on the Terran Hegemony, is a curious quirk in the RFL lineage. At 90 tons, it is the heaviest Rifleman produced, and easily the deadliest, but its loadout does not fit the Rifleman line's modus operandi. Developed and produced at literal gunpoint by Krupp Armaments on Terra, the RF-2A mounted four Gauss Rifles, and only two tons of ammo. The addition of a Null Signature System made it an ambush specialist, as it's 32 km/hr top speed made it ill-suited for anything else. The Rifleman III proved to be remarkably effective, destroying nine SLDF mechs before it was brought down during the battle for Terra. It remains a curious and remarkable outlier in the Rifleman lineage.

Perhaps the most notable legacy of the Rifleman is that, for all its flaws, and the fact that it is ill-suited for line duty, it has become basically impossible to replace in its niche. It is notable that the only mech better than the Rifleman for the anti-aircraft role is the RFL-3N-2, a mech 20 tons heavier, crammed full of the most advanced technology available, and still utilizing the Rifleman chassis.

That doesn't mean that companies haven't tried.

The most notable one is Kallon Industries itself. Recognizing the need for a replacement to the venerable RFL series, it's creator set about building a better, more capable Rifleman around the Garret D2j system in the early 2770s. The result was the Jagermech. 5 tons heavier than the Rifleman, the Jagermech was built to correct the three problems of the Rifleman: it ran too hot, it's ammo ran dry too quickly, and it's armor was too thin.

Swapping out the twin large lasers for paired AC/2 autocannons solved the heat problem, and gave the Jagermech the ability to chip away at incoming fighters from long ranges. At the same time, the extra tonnage allowed for a doubling of AC/5 ammo at one ton per gun, while a single ton of AC/2 ammo gave the more ammo-conservative twin light autocannons punch.

However, the armor stayed the same, despite the increase in weight. At the time, the designers (rightfully) figured that a purpose-built anti-aircraft mech wouldn't require much armor, as the mech simply needed to survive a highspeed pass by fighters. Since no one knew that the scale of war was about to change, the mech seemed to be perfect for its intended role.

Throughout the last days of the Star League and the early Sucession Wars, the Jagermech could be found working in tandem with the Rifleman in anti-aircraft roles. However, as the face of war devolved into smaller scale combat, the Jagermech would find itself thrown onto battle lines right next to the Rifleman as a mech ill-suited for the generalist nature of modern warfare.

A single variant of the Jagermech would be produced right before the end of the Star League. Doubling down on the AA role, the JM6-A replaced the twin AC/5 cannons with paired LRM-15 launchers, one in each arm, and two tons of ammo. It also added two tons of armor, increasing protection. This variant was produced in small numbers in the chaos before the collapse of the Star League, and almost none made it to the SLDF before the Exodus. Instead, most ended up serving in Federated Suns Regimental Combat teams.

Time would see both mechs refit with lostech, with the Rifleman receiving XL engines, more armor, double heat sinks and either upgraded autocannon (RFL-5M) or a return to the PPC configuration of early models (RFL-5D). Some custom models even mounted twin Gauss rifles in the arms at the expense of the large lasers and autocannon of the 3N.

The Jagermech would also see a twin Gauss rifle upgrade, although as an official Kallon variant (JM6-DG) rather than a rare customized mech, and at the expense of all four autocannons. For the most part though, variants to the Jagermech focused on upgrading autocannons to faster-firing Ultra models (JM6-DD), increasing ammunition, and upgrading the mech's two medium lasers.

Perhaps the most notable Jager variant is the new 70-ton JM7-D, introduced in 3057, which adds 4.5 tons of armor and swaps the AC/2 cannons for ER Large lasers. The extra weight saved is then given to thirteen double heat sinks.

As well, as of this writing, there are rumors of a newly redesigned Jagermech being developed in the Federated Commonwealth. It remains to be seen whether this new Jagermech will take the mantle of the definitive anti-aircraft mech, or whether the design will take the line in a different direction.

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In-Universe Mech Highlight: The Exterminator (SLDF era)

Introduced: 2630
Mass: 65 tons
Max Speed: 97 kph
Jump Capacity: 150m

Designed by General Systems in 2630, The Exterminator was the company's only foray into mech design and manufacturing. With every component of the mech being built at General System's Caph factory, the Exterminator was a purpose-built Special Operations mech with a single highly skilled and specialized role: Headhunting.

Designed specifically to slip through enemy lines and decapitate command and control elements within a battlespace, the Exterminator was a fast-moving 65 ton mech that utilized the pinnacle of defensive and electronic warfare technologies to minimize detection and headhunt command-level elements.

While the base-model EXT-4D was outfitted with a sheathed directional communications array, phased array sensor systems, Fibrolyte Ablative armor and heat baffles to disguise its IR signature, the pinnacle of the Exterminator's stealth features only appeared in two highly-classified limited versions: the EXT-4C variant, released alongside the 4D, and the top-secret (and extremely rare) "2nd generation" EXT-4Db SLDF Royal variant introduced nine decades later in 2718, which carries an all-energy loadout for extended operations behind enemy lines.

Both of these extremely rare variants add the Null Signature System and Chameleon light polarization shield, making the Exterminator hard to detect to both sensors and the naked eye. The two systems work in combination with each other, with the Null Signature System cloaking heat output and electronic emissions while the Chameleon blurs the mech's visual outline, allowing it to blend into surrounding terrain. (Editor's Note: Think the camo system in "Predator")

Extremely fast for a heavy mech, the Exterminator can move at 97 km/hr, allowing it to outrun most mechs of the Era. The few mechs that could catch it would find itself outgunned, as the Exterminator carries four Averell medium lasers and a Deadeye-10 LRM-10 (The Royal 4Db variant swaps out the LRM-10 for an ER Large Laser). A Dinatech Mk III small laser keeps infantry at bay, while a Buzzsaw anti-missle system protects the Exterminator from missle salvos launched by slower mechs. The armament is strong enough to strike hard at the normally lightly armored command & control elements ensconced deep behind enemy lines, and what armor the mech's arsenal cannot penetrate, its feet and battlefists can.

On top of its straight-line speed, the Exterminator is also extremely nimble, capable of leaping 150m from its five jump jets- 2 in each leg, and a single jet in its rear. The best Exterminator pilots could fire jump jets in a single leg to "juke" the mech one way or another, making the mech even harder to hit. Since the job of headhunting was only ever given to the best pilots in an SLDF unit, and training in such a specialized mech was extensive, "the best" can be taken to mean "all" Exterminator pilots. Indeed, it was not uncommon to find Gunslinger Program graduates logging significant time in an Exterminator, such was the importance of and skill required for headhunting missions.

Lastly, if you can find it, and you manage to catch it, the Exterminator has 10.5 tons of high-tech armor protecting its valuable electronics. While not as well-armored as many of its heavy counterparts, the Exterminator is well armoured for a mech with its speed and mission profile, and the Exterminator's Fibrolyte Armorscale has been improved with four layers of early-generation reflective armor as its outer skin, providing enhanced protection against energy weapons while also making the mech even harder to see in combat. It also makes the mech extremely difficult to hit with a TAG laser.

The Exterminator was a rare commodity during the SLDF Era, classified and kept out of the public eye. Highly prized by commanders for its abilities, it was generally attached to a high-level headquarters or as the fifth mech of a reinforced Command Lance. The SLDF's penchant for combining mechs of a single type into a unit also applied to the Exterminator, so it was not uncommon for all Exterminators in a regiment or division to be pulled from batallion commands and combined into a Lance or company for Special Combat Missions.

The only thing more dangerous to an enemy's field base, mobile HQ, and general command structure than a single Exterminator is a pack of them.

Such a rare and effective mech is a dangerous adversary, and the fall of the Star League and the dawn of the Succession Wars saw these mechs hunted down and destroyed, lest the Exterminator live up to its reputation against one's own command structure. In the midst of the massive destruction of the first Succession War, commands assigned entire specialized lances dedicated to eliminating single Exterminators.

The price on the heads of these mechs, in combination with the loss of the advanced technologies responsible for its stealth and speed, and the destruction of General Systems' Caph factory in 2793, lead to this already extremely rare mech being wiped from the battlefield. Attempts by Kallon industries in 3006 to re-purpose the design as a line mech using available technology was a failure, and only Comstar managed to retain a small stockpile of the original design, and even in their ranks of vintage SLDF treasures, the EXT-4C and 4Db stealth variants were exceedingly rare.

Legacy: A decade after the Exterminator was introduced, it's success encouraged the SLDF to expand the use of its highly secret Null Signature System and Chamelon Light Polarization Shield, and a lighter Headhunter mech, the 35 ton Spector, was produced in very limited numbers by Norse Technologies, with all 600 being delivered in 2640. Although it never gained the Exterminator's dubious reputation of being a battlefield ghost greatly feared by the SLDF's foes, it was well-received by its pilots and SLDF command, and its all-energy weapons loadout, faster speed (119 km/hr) and greater agility (210m jump capacity), as well as its next-generation AR-12 Sheathed Directional beacon with a Guardian ECM suite, made it an effective mission partner for the Exterminator, and gave the SLDF exceptional flexibility for fulfilling headhunting and deep-strike Special Operations mission scenarios. Almost all of the Spectors- as well as the plans and reports on the highly classified mech- disappeared with Alexander Kerensky in the SLDF Exodus. The few that did remain were destroyed in the opening days of the Succession Wars.