Nice Abele!
I am going to close the contest with Ice Hellion's design that he got to me yesterday (I am the one who is a little late with real life stuff going on here and won't penalize Ice for what I could have posted earlier).
Overview
Although the St. Ives Compact has been independent from both the Federated Commonwealth and the Capellan Confederation, it walks a thin line between both and tries to combine both its roots and its allies into something unique that might give it an advantage.
Among the advantages enjoyed is the access to all the data roms of the Federated Commonwealth Armed Forces in their fights against the Clans as well as reports from soldiers and officers serving among those forces, among them the best known being Kai Allard Liao.
With this first-hand knowledge, the heavy industry of the Compact was asked to launch a programme to propose simple yet efficient upgrades of the existing ‘Mechs available. One of these ‘Mechs was the Catapult, a classical Liao design that could become a test-bed for a risky intent: making an Inner Sphere MadCat to beat the Clans at their own game.
Capabilities
The idea behind the upgrade made by Ceres Metal Industries was to keep it simple yet efficient. For this, they first decided to replace the Jump Jets to keep heat under control and along the same idea, replaced all the Heat Sinks by 10 Doubles ones, which made necessary the use of a factory to change those inside the Fusion Engine.
The weapons were upgraded with 2 Ceres Arms Smasher PPCs found in the Vindicator put in the arms and 2 Holly SRM-4 used in the Victor produced in the Compact completing the classical 4 Medium Lasers. The choice was made to avoid ER PPC so as not to overtax the Heat Sinks and to give a clear split between the weapons for beginners with medium range ones (the PPCs) and close range ones (the other) and both sets being able to be cooled efficiently.
Last but least, the protection was also improved with 10 tons of Ferro-Fibrous Armour (“courtesy” of General Motors in the Federated Commonwealth) and CASE.
The final result was a ‘Mech that for a small increase in price was far better than the original design and that could perhaps compete against Clan designs or more probably against other similar Inner Sphere designs.
Battle History
The baptism of fire for the 2 new Catapult models was on Teniente when the 10th Lyran Guards battled to rescue Hohiro Kurita.
There although the lack of range and damage capacity when compared to Clan ‘Mechs decreased their overall efficiency, both models showed that they could perform well where other ‘Mechs failed and were in certain occasions able to hold their ground against Clan BattleMechs although the MadCat remained out of reach.
It is rumoured that the NAIS is working on a similar idea and is using the data from these first battles to emulate Clan ‘Mechs.
Variants
General Motors intended to comply with Hanse Davion’s wish to “beat the Falcons at their own game” and capitalised on what they knew of the CPLT-C1SIC to build an improved ‘Mech.
Going for extra mobility and firepower, they used a VOX 325 Extra-Light Engine found into a stockpile of old out-of-service Bombardiers to improve the speed by 25%. Thanks to the use of an advanced Endo-Steel Internal Structure, the weapons were upgraded to 2 ER PPCs and 8 Medium Lasers cooled by 15 Double Heat Sinks, giving the CPLT-C2FC an incredible firepower.
Deployment
The deployment of these new Catapults depends on two things: the number of Catapults being retrofitted and the access to the VOX 325 Extra-Light Engine. So far both items being in limited supplies have limited their numbers bur rumours are speaking of a new factory being targeted to produce the new engine in the Federated Commonwealth.
Notable ‘MechWarriors
Leftenant Bill “Green” Ferrigno served in the 10th Lyran Guards since getting out of his military formation. He has been fighting against the Clans in several ‘Mechs always painted in green and is known to push them to their limits and even beyond (and for calling all of them “I’m always angry”). Since receiving one, he is eager to test his brand new CPLT-C2FC against the Jade Falcons.
Catapult CPLT-C1SIC
Mass: 65 tons
Tech Base: Inner Sphere
Chassis Config: Biped
Rules Level: Tournament Legal
Era: Clan Invasion
Tech Rating/Era Availability: E/X-X-D-D
Production Year: 3052
Dry Cost: 6 384 125 C-Bills
Total Cost: 6 438 125 C-Bills
Battle Value: 1 559
Chassis: Hollis Mark II Standard
Power Plant: Magna 260 Fusion Engine
Walking Speed: 43,2 km/h
Maximum Speed: 64,8 km/h
Jump Jets: Anderson Propulsion 30
Jump Capacity: 120 meters
Armor: StarGuard Ferro-Fibrous w/ CASE
Armament:
2 Ceres Metal Industries/Ceres Arms Smasher PPCs
4 Hollis Incorporated/Martell Medium Lasers
2 HildCo Interplanetary/Holly Short Range Missile Pack SRM-4s
Manufacturer: Ceres Metal Industries
Primary Factory: St. Ives
Communications System: O/P COM-211
Targeting and Tracking System: O/P 1078
================================================================================
Equipment Type Rating Mass
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internal Structure: Standard 104 points 6,50
Engine: Fusion Engine 260 13,50
Walking MP: 4
Running MP: 6
Jumping MP: 4 Standard
Jump Jet Locations: 2 LT, 2 RT 4,00
Heat Sinks: Double Heat Sink 10(20) 0,00
Gyro: Standard 3,00
Cockpit: Standard 3,00
Actuators: L: SH+UA R: SH+UA
Armor: Ferro-Fibrous AV - 179 10,00
Armor Locations: 1 HD, 6 LT, 6 RT, 1 RL
CASE Locations: 1 LT, 1 RT 1,00
Internal Armor
Structure Factor
Head 3 9
Center Torso 21 27
Center Torso (rear) 7
L/R Torso 15 23
L/R Torso (rear) 6
L/R Arm 10 17
L/R Leg 15 22
================================================================================
Equipment Location Heat Critical Mass
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 Medium Lasers CT 6 2 2,00
Medium Laser RT 3 1 1,00
SRM-4 RT 3 1 2,00
Medium Laser LT 3 1 1,00
SRM-4 LT 3 1 2,00
PPC RA 10 3 7,00
PPC LA 10 3 7,00
@SRM-4 (25) RT - 1 1,00
@SRM-4 (25) LT - 1 1,00
Free Critical Slots: 17
BattleForce Statistics
MV S (+0) M (+2) L (+4) E (+6) Wt. Ov Armor: 6 Points: 16
4j 3 3 2 0 3 3 Structure: 5
Special Abilities: CASE, SRCH, ES, SEAL, SOA
Catapult CPLT-C2FC
Mass: 65 tons
Tech Base: Inner Sphere
Chassis Config: Biped
Rules Level: Tournament Legal
Era: Clan Invasion
Tech Rating/Era Availability: E/X-X-E-D
Production Year: 3052
Dry Cost: 14 760 625 C-Bills
Total Cost: 14 760 625 C-Bills
Battle Value: 1 974
Chassis: McLarren-65B Endo Steel
Power Plant: VOX 325 Fusion XL Engine
Walking Speed: 54,0 km/h
Maximum Speed: 86,4 km/h
Jump Jets: Anderson Propulsion 30
Jump Capacity: 150 meters
Armor: Durallex Heavy Standard Armor
Armament:
2 Johnston Industries/Johnston High Speed ER PPCs
8 General Motors/Magna Mk II Medium Lasers
Manufacturer: General Motors
Primary Factory: New Valencia
Communications System: O/P COM-500
Targeting and Tracking System: Ceres Bullseye
================================================================================
Equipment Type Rating Mass
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internal Structure: Endo-Steel 104 points 3,50
Internal Locations: 1 HD, 1 CT, 3 LT, 3 RT, 1 LA, 1 RA, 2 LL, 2 RL
Engine: XL Fusion Engine 325 12,00
Walking MP: 5
Running MP: 8
Jumping MP: 5 Standard
Jump Jet Locations: 1 CT, 2 LT, 2 RT 5,00
Heat Sinks: Double Heat Sink 15(30) 5,00
Heat Sink Locations: 1 LA, 1 RA
Gyro: Standard 4,00
Cockpit: Standard 3,00
Actuators: L: SH+UA R: SH+UA
Armor: Standard Armor AV - 168 10,50
Internal Armor
Structure Factor
Head 3 9
Center Torso 21 24
Center Torso (rear) 7
L/R Torso 15 21
L/R Torso (rear) 6
L/R Arm 10 16
L/R Leg 15 21
================================================================================
Equipment Location Heat Critical Mass
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4 Medium Lasers RT 12 4 4,00
4 Medium Lasers LT 12 4 4,00
ER PPC RA 15 3 7,00
ER PPC LA 15 3 7,00
Free Critical Slots: 6
BattleForce Statistics
MV S (+0) M (+2) L (+4) E (+6) Wt. Ov Armor: 6 Points: 20
5j 4 4 2 0 3 2 Structure: 3
Special Abilities: ENE, SRCH, ES, SEAL, SOA
