OBT Forum

The Warhammer had been around for nearly two centuries as the Star Leauge Defense forces Primary Heavy Attack Platform, and was subsequently widely adopted by the member states of the SLDF.  House Davion was the last to adopt the machine wide spread as a matter of pride, preffering thier home brewed HMD-3D Hammerhands.  nearly 50 years after the last Hammerhands retired from service, some Military planners began to take a second look at the antiquated machine, and saw some of the advantages to the platform.

General Kerensky, fresh in his first year  would not entertain Skobel in recreating the Hammerhands for the SLDF, citing the design as antiquated.  Skobel Engineers were undetered however and went about taking the concept and updating it with new technologies.  Intending to be the new Battlemech (along with thier jackrabbit project) to bring them back to prominence among SLDF Contractors, Skobel called the new machine the Rising Star.

Capabilities
The Rising Star was designed to be a medium range platform designed to tackle combined arms forces a company at a time.  Dual Purpose 88mm anti tank cannons  pack as much firepower as a PPC for a fraction of the heat, and are equally devastating against mech armor or peeling open tanks.  all other weaponry was designed to support the cannons up close, and exploit open tears in armor of enemy units, or make up for deficiencies in the cannons themselvs.

the Rising Star by all rights should have been a success, but the inital 300 models proved to be faulty in thier targeting systems, only able to recognize targets between the ranged of 300 and 450 meters, with anything inside or outside becoming a dead zone.  the Falcon Watcher was a disaster that killed the mechs production, and the 300 machines were mothballed.  Rising Stars were Uncached during the final push to Terra by SLDF forces and the system replaced with Defiance provided TharHes Ares VIIs donated by the Lyran Commonwealth.

Nice.