’Mech of the Week: RF2-A Rifleman III
Rifleman III. Source of a legend of a company-killing BattleMech during the Liberation of Terra. At 90 tons, heaviest of the
Rifleman series of designs. One of the myriad of super-weapons developed by Amaris and his regime.
Something that reminds me of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Mega-Weapons.
(Though does that make the
Rifleman III the equivalent of the
Maus tank, or the
Matar?)
The
Rifleman III comes to us via
Experimental Technical Readout: Gunslingers.
Stephen Amaris appears to have realized how much he had bitten off late. With the SLDF bearing down on Terra and him, he initiated a slew of programs to come up with weapons that could fend off the coming juggernaut. Some worked better than others. But like Hitler’s before him, few were ready in time to provide more than a speedbump, if that. Amaris also seems to have ended up with Hitler’s habit of interfering with the designs as they were being created.
Other programs were simply overwhelmed by what was asked of them. The
Rifleman III is one such program. When trying to create a machine capable of taking out large numbers of others, something has to give. And frankly, putting resources into so many different programs also meant that almost all didn’t get the resources they needed to be brought to fulfillment.
The design process for the RF2-A
Rifleman III started on New Year’s Day 2776. By the time it was ended, all Krupp Armaments had managed to produce was one prototype, which went forth and killed nine BattleMechs before succumbing to its wounds. Which, at least, means the legends about it hadn’t gotten too overblown.
The first thing that Krupp did was take a
Rifleman or
Rifleman II chassis and bulk it up to carry the added weight of the design. Since killing lots of foes quickly was the design paradigm, they chose to mount four Gauss Rifles for their killing power. And that’s where the challenges began to take their toll. They only managed to give the design two tons of ammunition, meaning a continuous Alpha Strike would expend the bins in four volleys.
Moreover, with the guns alone constituting two-thirds of the total weight of the design, movement speed was another casualty. Even using an extralight engine, the designers could only fit a 180-rated model, giving the design the speed profile of the slightly heavier Annihilator. The final victim was the armor loadout. Mounting a mere ten and a half tons of armor, the design is only at 60% of maximum protection (which, to be fair is on par for the classic RFL-3N Rifleman). The layout of the armor is in a 9, 31/8, 20/6, 16, 18 pattern. This means the legs have more internal structure than they do armor. These compromises lead to the design being more of an ambush predator, something helped by the addition of a Null Signature System, though that alone counts for the heat dissipation from the ten single-strength heat sinks.
The design process did leave a few interesting quirks. The targeting system has the ability to target multiple foes in the front arc with no penalties. Also the ammunition bins are streamlined in such a way as to allow for rapid reloading (though doing that under fire sounds like something you would send Harley Quinn to do).
The one and only battle that this design fought was near Geneva during the Liberation. Afterwards, the wreck was just left to be grown over, with even the SLDF not deeming it worthy of pulling its Battle-ROMs. And there it stayed until dug up by researchers during the early Republic period. Which, after reviewing, were turned over to the Republic’s bureaucracy. Where they may still languish. Krupp may also have records of this machine, but they aren’t telling.
The fact that no records of this machine were left in the Star League files makes one wonder if all such records went with the SLDF on their Exodus. There is the possibility that some who fought the
Rifleman III may have used those experiences to influence the ANH-1G
Annihilator, and later the
Annihilator C 2. And then there was the semi-legendary
Gausszilla. I also do wonder how this machine would have worked in a dueling setting.
Now this is the spot where I would tell you how I’d use the design. Thing is, there was only one, and I’m not sure I could have done better than that pilot, at least in that situation. At least he went down fighting. Now, if I could use it anywhere I liked, I would likely have placed it on some hill to provide sniper fire down at foes. The null signature system helps with the longer ranges (or more accurately, by messing up return fire). And depending of my whim in that fight, I would have rapid fired the Gausses and cooled down while reloading (definitely station an ammunition resupply truck or three near-by). Since I am mentioning friends, I would also get a few anti-air machines near-by as while I might knock a few of those birds out of the air, they are likely to do some serious damage to me. And all it would take is one critical to a Gauss to potentially rip my day in half.
Fighting one is a bit trickier. One way would be by using overwhelming force of numbers (arguably what the SLDF did). Consider that while the SLDF had
Atlases and
Atlas IIs, they also had other nasty assault ’Mechs, like
Pillagers. And since the battle was in Geneva, likely the final push, the cream of the SLDF was almost certainly there, with some aerospace back-up. Frankly, keeping one’s losses down when fighting this thing is not going to be easy, so sometimes you have to let ’er rip. I will also note, that if the machine had been fighting anywhere outside a populated area, I would have considered artillery and ortillery to deal with him. Against more modern units, well, he’s a bit outclassed. And that’s before dealing in Clan monsters like
Hellstars. Or for that matter,
Gausszilla.
The
Rifleman III was a legend from its one brush with history. That that brush was, in part, directed by Stephen Amaris likely has had the effect of making it forgotten for most of history. Outside of that one legend of a BattleMech which trashed a full company.
