Blame Baradul's troll-build Thunderbolt for this. That and he stomped the hell out of me in a match with it, because by god is that thing intimidating. Yes it's trolling, but it actually works.
The Meltdown was an experimental heavy 'Mech produced by Defiance Industries as a 'stress until destruction' design. Never originally meant for mass production, instead it was a testbed to see if the legendary survivability of older Succession War era 'Mechs, particularly the Awesome along with a few others, could be achieved again with completely modernized components. Quite literally the only equipment on the Meltdown as it walked out of the R&D hangar for the first time, that pre-dated the 31st century, was it's model of gyro, and Valiant Lamellor armor plating.
Deliberately mounting an all energy loadout, covering 80% of the most commonly encountered range brackets among it's peers, even including ClanTech designs, there was little need to worry towards ammunition cook-offs, relegating over-heating issues more towards the endurance of it's pilot in conditions that most deserts never reach, and just how far the reactor could be pushed before a coolant line connection gave up the ghost. In something of a nod to the previous century, the Meltdown's myomers were of triple-strength variety, installed to at least partially offset the drastic slowdown it would normally experience at the heat loads it would soon be subjected to. As for the armaments themselves, Defiance Industries went with the idea of gradually cranking up the heat, rather then spiking it. No less than half a dozen light particle cannon dot the Meltdown's exterior, both on it's arms and torso. For closer ranges, as the experiment also was testing a new crystalline mixture for Defiance's medium lasers, engineers installed a duo of extended ranged models alongside high-powered X-pulse types, both of which would push the new lens mix to their conceivable battlefield limits.
In a nod to the original plans for survivability testing, rather than the focus on thermal effects it's armament created, staff at Defiance bargained with Clan Sea Fox for a shipment of Mark II HarJel systems. The idea was that, as the thermal effects built up and started straining components to their limits, or beyond them, the flow of HarJel would allow these components to 'reasonably' catastrophically fail without drastically damaging the overall chassis itself. Such as sealing any breaches to the reactor core long before any external air flow hit the plasma - no one wanted to waste nearly 15 million C-bills in a chain-reaction steam explosion. The fact that, after the HarJel begun to work, seeping through cracks - each carefully recorded to see where stress fracturing had occurred - the 'Mech chassis started living up to it's name was a mere coincidence.
Two models were built, one to be subjected primarily for the original survival test, while it's sibling would be all but bodily dropped inside a lava tube and pilot ordered to fire a few blasts, 'for the record'.
Then Malvina Hazen led the Jade Falcons right into the heart of the Lyran Commonwealth, managing to strike deep enough to start the Seventeenth Battle of Hesperus. Quite obviously, the test plans went completely out the proverbial window the moment the Falcons started their combat drops. Both Meltdowns were deployed together in the Myoo mountain range, guarding one of the strategic passes in the area. Operating under heavy coverage from allied units, the two pilots worked in concert to lay down a constant, seemingly never-ending barrage of particle beam fire at any 'Mechs trying to force the pass. While individually not much more than chipping at armor, the sheer number of incoming bolts confused Falcon pilots, as they outright could not tell that these were merely 'light' particle cannons, as the damage to their units racked up faster than they could easily account for, along with the electronic interference keeping them from realizing the truth. Captured BattleROM recordings showed that, twenty minutes into the engagement, the Falcons outright thought they were facing either an entire lance of Awesomes, something even they were leery to push against, or a trio of Warhawks or Hellstars, which wasn't exactly morale boosting for the invaders either. However it wasn't their firepower which finally made the Falcons yield on that front, and turn back to try forcing their way around the Myoo highlands. It was the HarJel. The self-repair capacity inherent in the system allowed the Meltdowns to trade fire for a bit, and then sit back to 'heal' damage taken, before poking back out to launch off yet another rapid fire salvo of bottled lightning. With the Meltdown pilots taking care never to stay out in the open too long, plus occasionally firing off lasers instead, the approach of night and the ECM coverage made the Falcons believe there were far more defenders present than there ever truly were.
In truth, the Meltdowns, along with an elderly Zeus and Banshee, both half-stripped for repairs, were backed by a mere three Gürteltier battle tanks - the source of the ECM interference, all facing an entire Trinary. The scratch-built force was sent out as a forlorn hope, ordered to hold the pass for as long as possible and die standing, while reinforcements were rushed up into the next chokepoint behind them. Instead, the confusion caused by never coming out of their defensive positions, but shifting between them constantly, kept the Clan units from being able to pinpoint exactly where to push in. When it became clear that the Falcons had bogged down, a single resupply truck was rushed up the pass to provide scatterable mine tipped missiles for the Gürteltier's MMLs, turning the position from nothing more than a highly visible speedbump, into a true quagmire. Ironically, the fact they held on for so long actually made things worse elsewhere, as when the Clan units disengaged suddenly, all those reinforcements were out of position for the real thrust towards the factories. The surprising display of resilience against such odds turned the design from a mere experiment, into a full production run by direct order of the Archon herself.
Meltdown MLT-0D (LCAF Heavy)
Mass: 75 tons
Tech Base: Inner Sphere
Chassis Config: Biped
Rules Level: Era Specific
Era: All Eras (non-canon)
Tech Rating/Era Availability: X/X-X-X-A
Production Year: 0
Cost: 19,342,750 C-Bills
Battle Value: 2,072
Chassis: Unknown Endo-Composite
Power Plant: Unknown 300 Light Fusion Engine
Walking Speed: 43.2 km/h (54.0 km/h)
Maximum Speed: 64.8 km/h (86.4 km/h)
Jump Jets: None
Jump Capacity: 0 meters
Armor: Unknown Standard Armor
Armament:
6 Light PPCs
2 Medium X-Pulse Lasers
2 ER Medium Lasers
2 HarJel IIs
Manufacturer: Unknown
Primary Factory: Unknown
Communications System: Unknown
Targeting and Tracking System: Unknown
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Equipment Type Rating Mass
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internal Structure: Endo-Composite 114 points 6.00
Internal Locations: 1 HD, 2 LA, 2 RA, 1 LL, 1 RL
Engine: Light Fusion Engine 300 14.50
Walking MP: 4 (5)
Running MP: 6 (8)
Jumping MP: 0
Heat Sinks: Double Heat Sink 16(32) 6.00
Heat Sink Locations: 1 LT, 1 RT, 1 LA, 1 RA
Gyro: Standard 3.00
Cockpit: Standard w/ Full Head Ejection System 3.00
Actuators: L: SH+UA+LA+H R: SH+UA+LA+H
TSM Locations: 1 LT, 1 RT, 1 LA, 1 RA, 1 LL, 1 RL
Armor: Standard Armor AV - 231 14.50
Internal Armor
Structure Factor
Head 3 9
Center Torso 23 35
Center Torso (rear) 11
L/R Torso 16 24
L/R Torso (rear) 8
L/R Arm 12 24
L/R Leg 16 32
================================================================================
Equipment Location Heat Critical Mass
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Light PPC RA 5 2 3.00
Light PPC LA 5 2 3.00
2 Light PPCs RT 10 4 6.00
ER Medium Laser RT 5 1 1.00
HarJel II RT 0 1 2.00
2 Light PPCs LT 10 4 6.00
ER Medium Laser LT 5 1 1.00
HarJel II LT 0 1 2.00
2 Medium X-Pulse Lasers CT 12 2 4.00
Free Critical Slots: 0
BattleForce Statistics
MV S (+0) M (+2) L (+4) E (+6) Wt. Ov Armor: 8 Points: 21
4 3 4 2 0 3 2 Structure: 2
Special Abilities: TSM, , ENE, SRCH, ES, SEAL, SOA
Notes:
1. One reason it mounts LPPCs, other then emulating Baradul's build (mostly), is that no one single Golden BB is going to take out it's armament. Which probably all of us have experienced one too many times in games played. And the HarJel just turns it into a ZombieMech that could only really be bettered if I could have somehow found a way to use a standard engine.
2. The heat curve on this thing is hilariously broken so long as you avoid pressing the FIREZ ALL ZE VEAPONS!!! button, and going for an alpha strike. In which case, I hope you like the ejection ride, you'll be in one. If you can avoid the temptation, its actually really hard to overheat within its two major range brackets (1-12 & 13-18 hexes). So the TSM is actually more for fluff than anything. Had six crits left, but no tonnage, and didn't really need the heat sinks, so I figured, eh, add it. Seems to work out though in MegaMek.
3. If using quirks, the Prototype will, naturally, have Prototype. It also has Easy to Maintain simply out of sheer necessity because of the otherwise finicky HarJel, and that engineers needed to quickly get into its guts, if things had gone to plan, to see what the stress testing would have done. The actual production model however, chucks both of those (sorry, lowly technician crews, your sacrifice will be remembered) for Battlefists, based on the King Crab ideal and less the Zeus's clubs. That's it, just Battlefists. Go punch a clanner in the face!
4.
The full-head ejection is standard for both the prototype and production version. Its the Lyrans. Reasonable price tags are for scrub tier Houses.
