Relayed through Agent Epsilon 513 via Caph
I appologise for the length of time between my reports, stuck out here in the Clan Homeworlds means that I don't have anything like ready access to a HPG. Not much to report this time round, mainly Clan social practices and information about the various Castes on social matters, it greatly supprised me that they have been able to get their hands on and allow to be watched that Cartoon about the 1st Somerset Strikers, although the Warrior's view it as insulting the Labour caste that have watched it and i've spoken to find it to be a comedy and caracture than a childs programme.
See Attached files 01 - 09.
One bit of interesting information though about a mech I'd not seen before. A contact and friend in the Diamond Sharks got talking about a shipping run that was made to the Blood Spirits, and he'd managed to sneak a few pictures. One of which was a mech overseeing security for the trade envoy and by Blake's hairy arse it was an ugly one. Intrigued I managed to scan it and studied it in my quarters as well as ask a few pertinent questions like its name and weight and then extrapolated from there.
It is apparent that the Blood Spirits are a very resource poor Clan, definately a third rate one that my contact felt could be facing extinction, because of their weak financial position they tend to use cheap and reliable components on their mechs rather than more extravogant weapons and the Blood Kite is definatly an example of this.
At 85 tonnes its a medium sized Assault Mech and is apparently built round an endo-steel skeleton, the only concession to 'high technology' incorperated into the design. No advanced armour and a bog standard 225 engine give it a max speed around 54 - 58 kph although a trio of jumpjets were visible in the picture so this ugly brute can indeed jump.
As it's an assault mech I can imagine it is well armoured but I have no exact figures available (15 tonnes of standard plate.)
Armament is clearly built for long range engagements and my contact said that the Kite had deep ammo bins (2 tonnes a peice), with the missiles for the trinity of Type XV Longbow LRM 15's being cheap and easy to produce, ideal for a resource poor Clan. The other weapons too some idenitfying, the three large energy weapons had me stumped at first. The bore of the weapons is excedingly large which first made me think they were an older mark of ER PPC, but the weight calculations didn't add up unless the Blood Kite has paper thin armour for its size. The short barrels also had me concerned that the Clans had copied our Snub-Nosed PPC's but this weapon system has not been adopted by the Clans. They are actually ER Large Lasers, the three Series 7K mod 4's are older weapons with less lasing crystals to focus the beam and instead are more a case of brute force and the use of a short and 'fat' beam, its an older mod of the standard 7k that's out of production with almost all other Clans but they are still more heat efficient than Inner Sphere ER Large Lasers and the 'fat' beam does not loose coherency due to the power behind it, giving it the same range as the other 7K's.
For short range work there's a trio (what is it with this mech and weapon grouping's three strong?) of SEP SRM 4's, unremarkable by Clan standards but far lighter and more effective than any Inner Sphere SRM-4.
Close study of the photo my contact took indicates a large cooling system on the Blood Kite, and whilst I doubt it could fire everything its got without problems it certinally has the cooling to fire its lasers without any heat build up, again I have no direct numbers or data without a long and risky investigation that would not bare fruit as I doubt we will see the Blood Spirits in the Inner Sphere any time soon. (The Mech has 21 double Heatsinks).
Asthetically it has to be one of the most ugly mech's ever produced, probably a sign of the Blood Spirits poor resources as most Clan Mech's are far more sculpted and incorperate their weapons far more subtly than this behemoth. I've also attached my report on Worker Caste practices and other matters.
<The report goes on about social media in Clan Space as well as other non-related tidbits, whilst we appreciate the Agent's report's please let him know not to waffle so much next time he contacts us.>
