Rhino Assault Battle Armour.
As the buildup to Operation REVIVAL picked up pace the development of more Battle Armour types wasn't unnoticed by the Ghost Bears. Always conservative they were quite content to watch, observe and plan accordingly. Until they learned that their hated rivals, the Hells Horses were developing a new heavy suit. The news of this spurred the Bears into action and they looked for a counter.
With no basis or frame of reference the Bears instead turned to the past and the development of the first Battle Armour types which would eventually lead to the Elemental. Here they discovered a prototype that had failed and been all but forgotten, the so called 'Rhino' suit, and this was to be their inspiration.
The Rhino's biggest draw back was its great weight and limited speed, but this was made worse by the design choice to make a warrior wear the suit as a normal Elemental would. This made it ponderous and slow to respond as well as difficult to get out of in a hurry. It was also off balance due to its center of gravity being rather high. Scientist Kara (Kepler) suggested two things. First the suit be increased in mass to the maximum 2-ton limit available and second that the Elemental didn't control it like a normal suit, but rather rode it like a tiny Mech with his or her body sat in the chest area, controlling the arms with waldo's and Mech like controls.
Although radical, and her suggestions resulted in several Trials of Refusal when she tried to forwards the idea, Trials that she handily won, development was still slow as the Scientists wanted to make the suit practical and potent, not just a quick answer to the Horses design.
What emerged was a towering humanoid design with thick limbs, broad, hunched shoulders and a 'head' that sat above the small observation port on the suit, the head itself was loaded with visual and audio sensors, relaying them to the Elementals HUD. The heavily armoured body was broad enough to let the Elemental use the miniature waldo linkages that controlled the arms whilst more traditional foot pedals controlled the legs. Although slow at 10kph the new suit was built as an anvil upon which a foe would be stopped and broken.
The slow speed was countered by heavy firepower though. A pair of ER small lasers and a single machine gun could do fearsome damage to Mech's when a Point focused its fire, and a pair of AP mounts let them cut through infantry. A power-pack was added to help increase endurance and provide additional charges for the lasers, this was at the cost of one of the suit's battle claws, although both hands looked the same and the battle claw was interchangable for left or right handed Elementals.
Derided by other Clans for its ponderous speed the Bear's quickly learned to pair the Rhino with a modified version of the Anhur transport to deploy the suits like mobile minefields. And despite their lack of speed, they made up for it by being very tough and hard hitting. Dug in Rhino's being exceptionally difficult to shift.
Although they entered service in fairly low numbers, they saw their greatest use in the Battle of Rasalhague. The remnants of several Kungsarmee Companies had 'lost' their Bear persuiers as they approached the Capital and were heading for Dobrak Pass, a rather narrow series of valley's and ravines to avoid detection as they approached the city. But the Bear's had already 'mined' the pass, with two full Stars of Rhinos (almost all that were available in the Bear's Invasion corridor at the time) were waiting with overlapping fields of fire for the Standard and Support suits.
Although the Rhino's suffered significant casualties, they were able to crush the relief forces and not one managed to get past them.
Rhino Assault Suit (Standard)
Clan TW
BV: 607
Cost: 4,415,000 C-bills
Movement: 1/1
Internal: 5
Armor: 90
Internal Armor
--------------------------------------
Trooper 1 1 18
Trooper 2 1 18
Trooper 3 1 18
Trooper 4 1 18
Trooper 5 1 18
Weapon Loc Heat
----------------------------------------
Machine Gun (Body) Point 0
ER Small Laser (Left arm) Point 2
ER Small Laser (Right arm) Point 2
Equipment Loc
----------------------------------
Battle Claw (Right arm) Point
Anti Personnel Weapon Mount (Left arm) Point
Anti Personnel Weapon Mount (Right arm) Point
Power Pack (Body) Point
Basic Manipulator (Left arm) Point
Rhino Assault BattleArmor (support)
Clan TW
BV: 623
Cost: 4,560,000 C-bills
Movement: 1/1
Internal: 5
Armor: 90
Internal Armor
--------------------------------------
Trooper 1 1 18
Trooper 2 1 18
Trooper 3 1 18
Trooper 4 1 18
Trooper 5 1 18
Weapon Loc Heat
----------------------------------------
LRM 4 (Body) Point 0
Small Pulse Laser (Left arm) Point 2
Ammo Loc Shots
----------------------------------------
BA LRM 4 Ammo Point 1
BA LRM 4 Ammo Point 1
BA LRM 4 Ammo Point 1
BA LRM 4 Ammo Point 1
BA LRM 4 Ammo Point 1
Equipment Loc
----------------------------------
Power Pack (Left arm) Point
Anti Personnel Weapon Mount (Right arm) Point
Anti Personnel Weapon Mount (Left arm) Point
Battle Vibro Claw (Left arm) Point
Battle Vibro Claw (Right arm) Point
What do ya think?