When the Usurper conquered Terra he and his forces had access to the finest manufacturing facilities in the Inner Sphere. As well as some of the premier arms and mech design bureau's along with millions of tons of previously limited issue SLDF technology. Whilst forces loyal to the Usurper recived what Royal mechs that had been captured or salvaged a slew of refits saw upgrades to designs across the board (See the files on the Rampage as well as the very obscure Dragoon). It must be assumed that with these forces combined with the RWRN and SDS that the SLDF would not be able to remove the Usurper and accept his claim to the Throne.
Of course we know this was not the case and as the SLDF under General Kerensky battered its way to Terra a bunker mentality seems to have settled amongst the Rim Worlds command echelon and in the mind of the Usurper. Realising that eventually Terra would come under attack the Rim World Military began a series of devlopment programmes that each looked at producing 'the ultimate weapon.'
Most of these were failures or produced in single units such as Jose Magellan's unique Thug or the fabled 'Super Rifleman' for which no information has yet been found. One of the most 'promising' programmes was the development of a Super-Mech that would be able to engage an entire company on its own and destroy them. The historical parallels between what would become the Matar and the Nazi Germany tank called the Maus are obvious. Both were designed to be as large and well protected as feasible and as well armed as possible. Both were also utter failures, hamgstrung by technological limitations and just pushing too far.
Under the eyes of both Rifkin Amaris (a close cousin) and the Usurper himself the Matar was designed to be a crushing supprise for the SLDF if they dared step foot on Terra. But from the start there were problems, to fit the armament required as well as the cooling systems and then to be sufficiently armoured, the mech would have to be bigger than any that went before. Amaris himself kept adjusting the design peramiters and any who objected were quickly and often publically silenced.
Built for defensive operations the Matar was not concerned with speed so a plodding 32kph was deemed suitable for the massive machine that would weigh in at a massive 110 tonnes. Whilst many firms had tried to break the '100 tonne barrier' in the past, with all the resources of Terra at their disposal and the bloody hand of Amaris at their back, the designers and Rifkin thought that a super-heavy mech was plausable.
By todays standards the armament is still impressive, a pair of gauss rifles sat in the torso whilst two of the then new large pulse lasers were mounted in the arms. For even more long range punch a ER Large laser was mounted in the centre torso with the gun jutting out over the mech's head. A rear mounted medium pulse laser and front mounted flamer completed the armament. Concerns about the NARC missile system and the Matar's inability to respond to missile fire that was not in a LOS ensured that a Guardian ECM was mounted, strangely enough in the left leg.
One curious feature of the Matar was its gauss rifles, both weapons had a rather short barrel and were nicknamed 'sawnoffs' these weapons were hidden behind sliding hatches that could be moved quickly to allow the weapons to fire and act as a supprise to anyone who had not seen the weapons deployed. But the capacitors and heavily reinforced barrels also took up so much internal space that a CASE system simply could not be fitted to shield the rifles.
Cooling was adequate, provided the pilot did not fire all three lasers repeatedly, but with no explosive ammunition onboard a pilot could push the heat scale considerably in battle before needing to cool.
Despite the advanced weapons and huge size the engine, internal structure and armour were all of standard types with a total of 20.5 tonnes of Starslab armour shielding the Matar from hostile fire, making it as well protected as was possible.
Unfortunately for the Usurper, corruption, graft and constant meddling with the design saw production delayed again and again, the technical challenges of overcoming the 100 tonne barrier manifested again and again with the developers and designers struggling to overcome them. In the end three design teams could not overcome the technical challenges but despite this three prototypes were ordered.
Whilst the body of the Matar was functional, the biggest problem was with the hip, knee and ankle actuators. Even with oversized and reinforced actuators based on those of the King Crab, the huge legs could not bare the weight of the machine. The one fully functional prototype failed dramatically when its right knee failed catastrophically during a test infront of Rifkin Amaris. The leg snapped at the knee as it walked, driving the torso down onto the shorn joint, impaling itself on the ruined leg.
With the SLDF now breathing down the necks of the RWR there was no time to fix the flaws and in a rage Rifkin and Stephan ordered the execution of all the designers involved with the Matar project for 'treasonous incompetence'. The other two prototypes were halted and all three machines scrapped, their weapons removed to be mounted on fixed defences near the Krupps works factory complex in Germany.
During the chaos of the Invasion of Terra by the SLDF, Rifkin Amaris attempted to flee into exile, his dropship was intercepted and boarded and although Rifkin Amaris had taken his life before being captured, amongst his posessions on his dropship were the plans for the Matar which were taken into exile by General Kerensky's forces, whilst down on Terra all the original molds for the Matar were destroyed ensuring the design would not see the light of day in the Inner Sphere.
Yet even though the Matar went down in history as a dead-enddevelopment created by a desperate and dying regime, it lived to vex the Inner Sphere again when Clan Smoke Jaguar reworked the designas the Behemoth or Stone Rhino as it is known in the Clans. Thanks to their grasp of technology the original Stone Rhino is very similar in looks and armament to the Matar, if slightly lighter and not at risk of spearing itself on its own legs.
A designers image of a Matar one of the few recovered by ComStar.
A Clan Behemoth/Stone Rhino, although this is not the 'Prime' version the similarity between the Stone Rhino and its predecessor is obvious. (I also used this image as I'm not sure if the original Stone Rhino/Behemoth is an unseen and didn't want to get in trouble.)
Any comments or criticism is most welcome :)
