BattleMech Technical Readout
Name/Model: Light Bringer (original fluff 2014) LB-X-IPD
Designer: Thunder
Source(s): Custom Mordel.Net Units
Technology: Inner Sphere
Technology Rating: D
Tonnage: 100
Configuration: Biped BattleMech
Era/Year: Star League / 2780
Rules (Current): Introductory
Rules (Era): Introductory
Rules (Year): Introductory
Total Cost: 9,716,000 C-Bills
Battle Value: 2,119
Chassis: Standard
Power Plant: 300 Fusion
Walking Speed: 32.4 kph
Maximum Speed: 54 kph
Jump Jets: Standard
Jump Capacity: 90 meters
Armor: Standard
Armament:
20 Medium Lasers
Manufacturer: Unknown
Primary Factory: Unknown
Communications: Unknown
Targeting & Tracking: Unknown
================================================================================================
Overview:
"Full power shot in 5, 4,3."
The screen darkens for a moment before brilliant emerald shafts of light errupt
across the screen, their back scatter illuminating the outline of the metal
behemoth that sent them forth.
"Thermal disapation looking good. Well within, Uh-oh."
That fateful utterance gave everyone in the room just enough time to look up at
the blazing screen, just in time to watch the Battlemech explode in a cascade
that started from the left leg and raced across the rest of the mech in a
ripple of bursting metal and explelled circuits, myomer and of course Coolant.
Lots and Lots of Coolant. The head rocketing off was simply the cherry on top.
Capabilities:
The Light Bringer is nothing less then an attempt to push past what seems an
insurmountable limit on the firepower capable of being unleashed by a single
battlemech. Given the constraints of Mass, space, and energy, a 50 ton mech
could surpass the firepower of even 100 ton mechs. Addmittedly there is a
qualatative difference in the effectivness of that firepower. The Assault mech
would be expected to at least project its own firepower to greater ranges, and
with better penetration. Still this situation was peeving to Star League era
research and development teams. With these goals in mind the Critera for what
would be the Light Bringer were drawn up.
The first and most important Criteria was to project greater firepower then a
certain 50 ton mech. To this end a fusilade of Medium lasers, More then had
been conceived of being mounted on anything short of a dropship, formed the
heart of the new mechs power. Despite being something of a short range weapon
the Medium lasers still allowed the mech to project its firepower nearly three
times as far as the medium mech. Each laser also possed better armor
penetrating ability then the Medium mechs own plethora of weapons.
With the primary design critera having been established the next problem was
making it work. THe problem was that the heat burden of firing that many
lasers simply could not be dealt with easilly. Advanced double strength
freezers could no more deal with it then other eperimental cooling systems.
One of the more successful techniques was to increase the preasure and flow
rate of the cooling system. Unfortunatly the dynamic interconected flow paths
of a battlemechs cooling system were prone to spring leaks when overstressed in
this way, quickly leading to near complete loss of cooling capacity. The
Advanced freezers were even more prone to take damage from this technique
leading to their eventual abandonment during this stage of development. The
first break through was the introduction of a smaller dedicated cooling loop.
By Limiting the distance that coolant needed to travel from the weapons mount
to raditors, a higher preasure and velocity of coolant could be maintained
without undue stress on the entire system. In effect by linking the cooling
systems to individual weapons only 2 heat sinks were required for each linked
medium laser. This was only a partial solution however. There simply was not
enough space in the mech to provide dedicated cooling systems to each weapon.
The next solution required a regression of the stated goals for the mech. A
reduction in firepower could be accepted, if the sustained firepower remained
greater then the offending Medium mechs. To this end, a study on improving the
efficiency of laser weapons bore fruit. By reducing the power output of a
laser 40% the waste heat could be reduced by 66%. Armor penetration of the
resultant energy pulse was reduced, but the ablative properties of follow on
energy pulses more then made up for it. Of historical note it was this type of
study which gave rise to the pulse laser.
With a workable solution to the overheat in hand, development to finalize a
weapons testing prototype into a full fledged battlemech proceded a pace.
Highlights include Jump jets for hot drops, maneuverability in rough terrain,
and as fortune would have it, Continued moblity despite crippiling overheat
effects. Armor was initially almost as heavy as possible. Further testing of
full powered shots showed that a slight reduction in favor of additional
radiators would allow even that massive overheat spike to be survivable.
Barely. Some of the time. This decision proved fateful as that the advanced
manipulations required to get the most out of the Light Bringer were too much
for many mechwarriors and technitians to maintain in acutal field conditons.
Deployment:
"You're saying a Rabit destroyed our 10 Million C-bill Prototype?'
"Yes sir, it took us awhile, but eventualy we were able to work our way through
the filtered footage to get this."
Pressing a button starts the fateful video, It begins to darken but then shifts
to a false spectrum and zooms in on the area near the mechs left leg. The
scream of tortured air is heard in a muted form as the weapons test begins, and
a rabit apprently startled bursts from its hole, And bursts into flames as the
secondary effects of the war machine's efforts turn the area around it into an
inferno. The flaming rabit attempts to run while thrashing in anguish, moving
even closer to the mech's leg. And then it is pulled into an air intake port
that is striving to draw in fresh cooler air from near the ground to slake the
needs of the thermodyanmic demons at the heart of the cooling system. A brief
burst of debris can be detected as the turbo fans disentigrate from the flaming
bit of Hopping FOD, and then the main explosion of super heated materials jets
out of the intake, begining the process of catastrophic destruction.
"Isn't that suppose to be a water intake port?"
"Yes sir, but with the heat load, every little bit of extra cooling helps, so
those ports also draw in air. You see the fans are variable speed so that..."
"Someone's good intentions just cost us 10 Million C-bills. Lose the air
intake. Haven't any of you heard of a satchel charge. What if some poor
bloody infantry type got in close with a grenade? What would happen then?"
"Probably the same thing that happened to the rabit."
"Heh. True. I wonder if we can market that as an anti-personel feature." The
executive began jovially, but then his demeaner returns to its former granite
sterness, "But mark me well. We Never mention that rabit again."
Variants:
Once the skills for "Linked Heat Sinks" and "Dial a Yield" lasers were
discovered they offered a strange variety of even more extreme options. To top
the list was a proposed warload of 40 medium lasers dialed back to the minimum.
Despite the miniscule heat each laser would produce this proposed design would
still suffer debilitating effects in short order. Maxing the yield of each
laser would be certain suicide. Asuming the mech didnt simply burst into a
giant cloud of live steam, it would require over a minute to cool down enough
to restart. Despite this it was considered seriously briefly. There is
something attractive about a single mech with as much firepower as a Medium
grade Naval Autocannon.
A More sane proposal was to replace 10 medium lasers with additonal cooling
systems. This mech, mounting 30 medium lasers, would have better sustained
capabilities then the production model Light Bringer. It was rejected however
because of well founded fears that mechwarriors would be unable to not try to
use those lasers at full power. Once again the steam blast scenerio seemed
likely.
In later years, the massive amounts of internal volume required to mount all
the systems needed to keep the Light Bringer in working order with its rather
extreme weapons load would prove to be a boon for the testing of other weapons.
With the cooling systems and lasers removed it is relativly easy to refit the
Bringer of Light with alternative weapons.
Notable MechWarriors:
Bun Bun the Vorpal Rabit.
Despite attempts to hush up the infamous rabit test, it proved too good not to
show up on youtube or its equivilent in whatever region of space one found
themselves. Over the course of centuries the video has remained popular. The
Rabit itself has acheived minor diety status. Incorporating the mythos of
other rabits into a single source of inspiration, it is not uncommon for
anti-mech trained infantry in all star nations, but especially the capellen
confederation to have a rabit based talisman upon their person. Be it a foot,
a "Playboy" tatoo, or of all things a "Sluggy Freelance" brand Switchblade. To
them Bun Bun the Vorpal rabbit gives inspiration that even the smallest most
insignificant of creatures can still bring down the lords of Cain who claim
dominance over the battlefield.
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Equipment Mass
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internal Structure: Standard 10.00
Engine: 300 Fusion 19.00
Walking MP: 3
Running MP: 5
Jumping MP: 3
Heat Sinks (Single): 34 24.00
Gyro: Standard 3.00
Cockpit: Standard 3.00
Armor Factor: 240 15.00
Type: Standard
Internal Armor
Structure Value
Head: 3 8
Center Torso: 31 40
Center Torso (rear): 8
R/L Torso: 21 35
R/L Torso (rear): 7
R/L Arm: 17 25
R/L Leg: 21 25
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Weapons and Ammo Location Critical Tonnage
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jump Jet CT 1 2.00
4 Medium Lasers RT 4 4.00
4 Medium Lasers LT 4 4.00
6 Medium Lasers RA 6 6.00
6 Medium Lasers LA 6 6.00
Jump Jet RL 1 2.00
Jump Jet LL 1 2.00
================================================================================================
Alpha Strike Statistics
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Point Value (PV): 50
TP: BM, SZ: 4, TMM: 1, MV: 6"j
Damage: (S) 6 / (M) 6 / (L) 0, OV: 4
Armor (A): 8, Structure (S): 8
Specials: ENE
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