BattleMech Technical Readout
Name/Model: Lightning Vine (Light Axe) 1
Designer: Thunder
Source(s): Custom Mordel.Net Units
Technology: Clan
Technology Rating: F
Tonnage: 45
Configuration: Biped BattleMech
Era/Year: Civil War / 3067
Rules (Current): Standard
Rules (Era): Standard
Rules (Year): Standard
Total Cost: 2,789,075 C-Bills
Battle Value: 1,344
Chassis: Endo Steel
Power Plant: 90 Fusion
Walking Speed: 21.6 kph
Maximum Speed: 32.4 kph
Jump Jets: None
Jump Capacity: None
Armor: Ferro-Fibrous
Armament:
3 Large Pulse Lasers
Manufacturer: Unknown
Primary Factory: Unknown
Communications: Unknown
Targeting & Tracking: Unknown with Advanced Targeting Computer
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Overview:
Lightning Vine. One of the nastier examples of Flora in clan space. A predatory plant
lightning vine is an ambush hunter spreading out a net of vines over an area waiting for
something to run into it. When an animal does come into contact with it, Fast twitch tissue
will roll up the net ensnaring the hapless creature. Given the ferocity of large numbers of
the life forms in the Kerensky cluster simply catching is never enough. Where most
predatory plants will use chemical warfare to kill their prey, Lightning Vine is aptly
named. Once something is captures Lightning Vine uses electrical currents to disrupt the
nervous system of it's prey. With their Muscles seized the prey is incapable of thrashing
around, damaging the plant, And it's heart ceases to function. Death follows soon after.
The carcass is soon surrounded by digestive vines which emit enzymes to break down the
plant's meal.
As gruesome as the Lightning vine seems, Most of the fauna on it's home world wouldn't have
much of an issue with it. It can be Identified visually without to much trouble. And
animals would learn to keep away from it, if it didn't cheat. Lightning Vine rarely has a
root system. It's a mobile plant, Slowly creeping along. Overnight it can reposition
itself several meters. The plant seems to try and find locations of animal movement, Hoping
to snare either something careless, Or given the kinds of animals it lives with, something
running away from another hunter. For the truly luckless animal, It'll move right over the
entrance to a den, Sending hunting vines into it's prey's lair.
Lightning Vine is responsible for a number of human deaths per year. Humans are Lightning
Vine's only major predator in the animal kingdom. It is considered both a threat and a
delicacy, it's vines being more "Meaty" then most other vegetables. In the wild, Lightning
vine tends to be culled off by other plant eating predatory vines. Once a large kill is made
Lighting Vine tends to be sedentary while it digests it's prey. This makes it vulnerable to
less mobile vines.
Capabilities:
The Clans choose well when naming this mech. They usually do find good names for their
toys, a fact helped by the wide variety of lethal things on their planets. The Lightning
Vine, or Light Axe in the Inner Sphere, is an odd ball design. It is pathetically slow for
any weight class. If you think Urbanmechs and Annihilators you're thinking of the proper
level of sluggishness, though to be fair at least the Urbies have Jump jets. You would
expect such a slow mech to at least have as much armor as possible, But once again you would
be disappointed. At 94% coverage a Lightning Vine's armor is decent, but still a bit below
par, especially in the legs. Lethality on this design comes from the guns. Triple Clan
Large Pulse lasers give accurate firepower for a remarkably long range. The Targeting
computer that rides herd on the guns seems to be there for the sole purpose of making the
"speed is life" types cringe in horror. I'm not kidding. From way out here trying to get a
glimpse into the Clan home worlds, its difficult to figure out whats going on anymore. Our
best guess is this was initially a Star Adder design. The basis for our reasoning is that
this mech seems to be the giant sized equivalent of Corona Battle Armor, And at last
reports the Adder's Beach head on York was begining to erode under light harassing units.
The Lightning Vine is an excellent area denial system for that style of attack.
Variants:
A common variation on this chassis sees the inclusion of jump jets at the expense of a heat
sink. This mars the heat efficency slightly, but not to a major extent. It does allow the
mech to tactically reposition much easier as well as open up hot drop options to deploy
behind enemy lines.
Notable MechWarriors:
I'll be Honest. It's a Game design. One of the guys I play against has decided that
10/15/10 Spiders is the way to go. This is my response. The Mech is light enough and Slow
enough to keep the Battle Value down, While at the same time it hits hard enough with enough
range and accuracy that nothing is really safe from it.
The Issue of course with specialist designs is how does it fair against things besides your
primary target. So far the answer is pretty good. They die relatively quickly if enough
fire comes their way, But given 2 of these vs an assault mech the Light Axe (It's original
name, But that name doesn't fit clan nomenclature very well.) tends to come out ahead. It
did well enough that the guy I was testing it against eventually started using laser
Reflective armor. That Kinda stopped my rampage, But even then this mech held it's own
fairly well.
Further notes from the present:
The heavy metal pro file I have is from 2010. And fortunately, it had most of the fluff
seen here.
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Equipment Mass
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Internal Structure: Endo Steel 2.50
Engine: 90 Fusion 3.00
Walking MP: 2
Running MP: 3
Jumping MP: 0
Heat Sinks (Double): 16 [32] 6.00
Gyro: Standard 1.00
Cockpit: Standard 3.00
Armor Factor: 144 7.50
Type: Ferro-Fibrous
Internal Armor
Structure Value
Head: 3 9
Center Torso: 14 22
Center Torso (rear): 5
R/L Torso: 11 18
R/L Torso (rear): 4
R/L Arm: 7 14
R/L Leg: 11 18
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Weapons and Ammo Location Critical Tonnage
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Large Pulse Laser CT 2 6.00
Targeting Computer RT 4 4.00
Large Pulse Laser RA 2 6.00
Large Pulse Laser LA 2 6.00
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Alpha Strike Statistics
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Point Value (PV): 32
TP: BM, SZ: 2, TMM: 0, MV: 4"
Damage: (S) 4 / (M) 4 / (L) 4, OV: 0
Armor (A): 5, Structure (S): 4
Specials: ENE
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