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Nice Irose!

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Menke Armor and Armaments was established to help the Big Mac secure its supply lines while McCarron’s Trading Company was born of the need to rebuild it after the 4th Succession Wars. Even if Menke A&A was more a vehicle company, the McCarron family with an eye on the future intended it to be able to produce BattleMechs and this is how some small experiments began with retrodits of existing classical designs, trying to first design bette ‘Mechs and then produce them.

Focusing on ‘Mechs that could be easily transformed they found out that the Grasshopper with its mix of protection, mobility, firepower and endurance was the perfect ‘Mech to begin their work on.


Capabilities
Eager to reinforce the strong points of the Grasshopper, the number of Medium Lasers was  almost doubled along with their replacement by more modern versions made by Ceres Metal Industries giving it an edge over classical GHR. The Large Laser was improved through the use of a Binary Laser Cannon from Firmir.
This upgrades in the weapons made necessary a complete rework of the way the weapons were placed, almost turning the new Grasshopper into something else.

The cooling capacity was improved thanks to 16 Double Heat Sinks but this was not enough to cool the Grasshopper down. This is why TSM was installed and is working perfectly with the different lasers weapons allowing the ‘Mech to jump at close quarters, fire with all its might and withdraw at full speed.

To increase its protection, a Guardian ECM and 0,5 tons of armour were added.


Battle History
During a long range patrol, Lieutenant Muten-Rōshi found out unidentified ‘Mechs closing in to a Capellan repair facility. After receving a few shots, he jumped with his Grasshopper within the pack formed by the enemy Lance and shot all its weapons at an Archer destroying it completely.
With its TSM being activated, he jumped all over, firing its lasers and kicking the other ‘Mechs before they were all destroyed and the last one, a Stalker was dispatched through a concentration of all the lasers at the same place, an aimed shot that Muten-Rōshi called in his after-acton report, a Kame shot.
At the end of the day, half his armour had been destroyed but he had managed to take a huge booty while keeping the Capellan repair facility safe, making it a profitable operation.


Variants
None so far. Although there have been intents to use two Binary Laser Cannons but the right heat balance to active the TSM and keep it that way was not found.


Deployment
Menke A&A is not able to upgrade on a massive scale the Grasshopper because they can find a lot of them and their installations are quite small. Each new GHR-6SW is given to selected ‘MechWarriors in the Big Mac units as a reward for “performing beyond the call of duty.”


Notable ‘MechWarriors
Lieutenant Muten-Rōshi of the Nightriders was one of the first ‘MechWarriors awarded the brand new Grasshopper. Due to its peculiar aggressive fighting techniques at close ranges in his Sun Wukong, he became a kind of legend among the Grasshopper pilots and even saw the intials of his ‘Mech name being given to the whole upgraded Grasshopper model.


Grasshopper GHR-6SW

Mass: 70 tons
Tech Base: Inner Sphere
Chassis Config: Biped
Rules Level: Era Specific
Era: Clan Invasion
Tech Rating/Era Availability: E/X-X-E-D
Production Year: 3052
Dry Cost: 8 433 473 C-Bills
Total Cost: 8 433 473 C-Bills
Battle Value: 2 056

Chassis: Mingh z33/7 Standard
Power Plant: VOX 280 Fusion Engine
Walking Speed: 43,2 km/h (54,0 km/h)
Maximum Speed: 64,8 km/h (86,4 km/h)
Jump Jets: Lexington Lifters
    Jump Capacity: 120 meters
Armor: Maximlian 100 Standard Armor
Armament:
    1 Firmir Weaponry/Firmir Laser Cannon Binary Laser Cannon
    7 Ceres Metal Industries/Ceres Arms Medium Lasers
    1 Ceres Metal Industries/Apple Churchill Golden Shield Guardian ECM Suite
Manufacturer: Lantren Corporation/Menke Armor and Armaments
    Primary Factory: Menke
Communications System: Allet-C308
Targeting and Tracking System: Allet T-11

================================================================================
Equipment           Type                         Rating                   Mass 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internal Structure: Standard                     107 points                7,00
Engine:             Fusion Engine                280                      16,00
    Walking MP: 4 (5)
    Running MP: 6 (8)
    Jumping MP: 4 Standard
    Jump Jet Locations: 2 LL, 2 RL                                         4,00
Heat Sinks:         Double Heat Sink             16(32)                    6,00
    Heat Sink Locations: 3 LT, 2 RT
Gyro:               Standard                                               3,00
Cockpit:            Standard                                               3,00
    Actuators:      L: SH+UA+LA+H    R: SH+UA+LA+H
    TSM Locations: 1 HD, 1 LT, 2 RT, 2 LA
Armor:              Standard Armor               AV - 216                 13,50

                                                      Internal       Armor     
                                                      Structure      Factor     
                                                Head     3            9         
                                        Center Torso     22           30       
                                 Center Torso (rear)                  13       
                                           L/R Torso     15           20       
                                    L/R Torso (rear)                  10       
                                             L/R Arm     11           22       
                                             L/R Leg     15           30       

================================================================================
Equipment                                 Location    Heat    Critical    Mass 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 Medium Lasers                              CT        6         2         2,00
2 Medium Lasers                              RT        6         2         2,00
Guardian ECM Suite                           RT        0         2         1,50
2 Medium Lasers                              LT        6         2         2,00
Binary Laser Cannon                          RA        16        4         9,00
Medium Laser                                 LA        3         1         1,00
                                            Free Critical Slots: 9

BattleForce Statistics
MV      S (+0)  M (+2)  L (+4)  E (+6)   Wt.   Ov   Armor:      7    Points: 21
4j         5       5       0       0      3     0   Structure:  6
Special Abilities: TSM, ECM, ENE, SRCH, ES, SEAL, SOA


Type: GHR-5LC Grasshopper
Production: Capellan Confederation (Ceres Metals Industries refit, Sian)
Combat Value: 1583
Total Cost: 7,360,774 C-Bills (including x1.7 tonnage premium)

Internal Struc (std): 7t
Engine: VOX 280: 16t
  Walking: 4
  Running: 6
  Jumping: 4          4t
Heat Sinks: 13(26): 3t
Gyro/Cockpit (Std): 6t
Armor Factor (Std): 13.5t (216 pips)

Head 3/9
Center Torso 22/30/13
R/L Torso 15/20/10
R/L Arm 11/22
R/L Leg 15/30

Quirks: Rugged (1)

1x PPC (3cr, 7t) RA
1x Command Console (1cr, 3t) H
4x Medium Lasers (4cr, 4t) RT/LT
1x SRM-6 (2cr, 3t) CT
1x Ammo (SRM) 15 (1cr, 1t) LT
1x Ammo (MG) 100 (1cr, 0.5t) LT
1x CASE (1cr, 0.5t) LT
3x Machineguns (3cr, 1.5t) LA

The Fourth Succession War was devastating for the Confederation, which lost entire regiments and worlds to the Federated Commonwealth.  It also lost a sizable number of their armaments manufacturers, making it difficult to rebuild the shattered CCAF, with the losses of Styk and Corey particularly galling, as Hollis Industries and Tao Mechworks had once supplied a sizable number of the Confederation’s heavy and assault grade command units – such as the venerable Battlemaster.

Ceres Metals still produced Marauders at their Capella and Warlock facilities, one of the few Command designs still being produced in the Confederation, but simply could not keep up with demand.  Ceres was planning on upgrading a subsidiary repair facility on Sian, and took the opportunity to expand their physical plant with government subsidies, while also offering a viable Command refit option to the CCAF.

The ‘Mech chosen by Ceres Metals was the Grasshopper, a durable, mobile, and well-armored heavy design.  Most importantly, the bulky housing for the head-mounted LRM-5 was readily converted to fit a Ceres Metals produced Command Console in an offset side-by-side arrangement, giving the Grasshopper high-powered uplinks and central comms, readily capable of coordinating an entire company’s worth of units.

Ceres accomplished this trick by stripping out the ancient Grasshopper’s single heat sinks for Ceres double-strength “freezers”, reducing the total number of thirteen doubles, sufficient to vent nearly all of the ‘Mech’s new weapons load-out even in mid-range brawls.  The existing Mingh z33/7 chassis has been retained, as has the VOX 280 engine, but virtually every other part of these Grasshoppers has been replaced by new (typically surplus) Ceres components, shipped in from their other facilities and warehouses.  The ancient Allet comms and targeting systems – usually rebuilt many times over the centuries – has been swapped out for new CeresCom 21-Rs comms and C-Apple Churchill targeting and tracking systems, both versatile electronics suites that are used on the Vindicator.  The Lexington Lifters have been replaced by Anderson Propulsion 30s, also from the Vindicator line.

Although the Ceres Executive Board expressed some interest in using lostech materials to save tonnage for more equipment, Ceres itself did not at the time produce either Endosteel or Ferro-Fibrous armor, so instead the design team added an extra half-ton to the already heavily armored Grasshopper, using a fresh layer of Ceres Durallex Standard to provide a near-optimal maximum level of armored protection for the’Mech.

The redesignated Grasshopper GRH-5LC (“C” for command), as a command ‘Mech, tries very deliberately  to mimic the classic Battlemaster’s weapons and layout but fit it into the existing Grasshopper weapons housings – a Ceres Arms Smasher PPC in the right arm, two pairs of Ceres Arms medium lasers, one pair in each side torso, and a Sian-Ceres Cougar SRM-6 – newly produced on Sian in partnership with Hellespont Industrials – with one ton of ammunition in the left torso, protected by lostech CASE.  Finally, three Ceres Arms MaxiMini Machineguns are fitted into the left-arm housing, fed by half a ton of ammunition in the CASE-protected left torso.

Ceres-Sian quietly began offering the upgrade package in 3048.  Given that Ceres Arms already produces all of the components, and that their Sian facility is perfectly situated to assemble these elements and refit older Grasshoppers as they are cycled through, the CCAF has been able to transform multiple handfuls of these venerable ‘Mechs into command vehicles for their rebuilding military in just the first few years of this program.

Very nice fabulousorcboy!!

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