For all his many faults, Stefan Amaris was a tinkerer and a lover of technology with many broad and sweeping ideas. Some of which were unworkable or simple flamboyant displays of wealth whilst others had far more practical uses.
Whilst living on Terra before taking the Throne, Amaris developed notions for not only modernising the forces of the Rim World Republic but making them more uniform. This is a very rational approach, with uniform design comes ease of supplying parts if all you need is one type of T&T system for example. This eases maintenance and supply loads and development costs. Unable to take this notion any further than a dream before he went from Stefan Amaris to Amaris the Usurper, the idea remained in his mind during his years on Terra.
With the death of the First Lord and the foundation of the Amaris Empire this idea went from thought to reality and Amaris put forward a tender for a mech that would have a universal chassis and be produced in variants all with the same base systems, structure and armour with the main differences being in weapons. This mech and its variants would replace dozens then in service and bring modern technology into common use in the RWA which it had previously not been able to obtain.
Of the three firms that put forwards designs the winner was the Krupp’s Stellar Technologies conglomerate who put forwards a 70 tonne bipedal design based at least in part on their previous mech the Lancelot.
The new design would feature the then revolutionary modular systems that had been featured on the Mercury Light Mech, itself a precursor to the now common omni-mech pod system. This would allow damaged components to be easily swapped out and replaced and the mech would also feature universal mountings and attachment points for all its weapon systems.
Whilst this aided in development and would be loved by techs working on the machines it was still a far cry from a fully modular system, any reconfiguration of a mechs weapons would still require a trip to a factory or depot.
Ten tonnes heavier than the Lancelot the design that was to become the Dragoon still had a lot of its predecessor’s sloped armour and hard edges but the standard design was slower, sacrificing speed for more weapons and armour.
VariantsThe 01 Dragoon was powered by a Nissan 280 XL engine, powerful enough to drive it along at the standard heavy mech speed of 64 kph at a run whilst 11.5 tonnes of Panzer Ferro Type 7F Ferro-fibrous armour shielded the machine, giving it far more protection than the older Lancelot. The potent Krupp-Comm 650 comms system was linked with a Guardian ECM suite to protect the mech from NARC systems and this was to be standard on all of the Dragoon variants.
For armament the 01 relied on paired L/66 LB10X Autocannons fed by three tons of ammo (one of which was buried in the centre torso of the mech.) A Blankenburg ER PPC provided a consistent long range punch whilst eleven double heatsinks helped keep the mech cool. With its arm mounted weapons the Dragoon had no lower arm actuators allowing it to do the Rifleman's 'trick' of flipping its arms to bring its firepower to bear on its rear arcs. A trio of jump jets also allowed the mech to leap 90 meters which is useful tactically and allowed for lethal Death From Above attacks.
The 02 Dragoon was quite a different machine, stripping out the jump jets and heavy paired autocannons for an L/48 AC-20, it retained the 01's ER PPC but also featured five Medium Lasers and a Small Pulse Laser for point defence. This variant also had a far more powerful Nissan 350 XL engine making it a fearsome brawler with a long ranged sting. The designers were unable to fit any more heatsinks into the design and the 11 double heatsinks would struggle with the heat load of a full alpha.
Design 03 was the fire support machine and whilst based on the standard 01, matching its 64 kph speed it featured a trio of LRM-15's each with their own Artemis IV FCS. A grand total of six tons of ammo for the launchers was mostly protected in the CASE shielded left torso but a ton of ammo was still sat in the centre torso. For close in defence a single medium laser and paired medium and small pulse lasers gave the 03 a punch against lighter machines that managed to close.
Design 04 was based once more on the 01 and retained its speed and ER PPC but traded its other weapons for a single Gauss rifle, two medium lasers and a quartet of SRM 4 missile launchers.
Krupp delivered the first prototypes of the 01 in early 2769, the firm had already been looking at developing and fielding a new mech and was well placed when Amaris made his request. The first production models walked into service with the Fourth Amaris Dragoons. The new machines would only be deployed with the elite Dragoon and Guards Regiments but a handful would be given out as 'party favours' to commanders of Mercenary units that had proven their loyalty to Amaris, often through committing war crimes and demonstrating skill in the field.
Even with two dedicated production lines open at Krupp’s for the Dragoon and its variants the mech's output remained low, never reaching the heights of the Lancelot's production levels. This has been blamed on sabotage, corruption and graft as well as difficulties producing the Dragoons rounded armour as well as retraining the techs on the new machines unique internal layout. Even so the Dragoon was a nasty surprise for General Alexsandr's forces and those that were in service often went down hard in the battles near and on Terra.
Post liberation the General ordered all of the surviving examples of the Dragoon to be scrapped and made Krupp’s retool its production lines. A few dozen survived this purge, but the mech had disappeared by the Second Succession War, the last known one a machine in Steiner service called
Dragon Wagon being destroyed during a the fighting on Caledonian in 2849, its hulk salvaged for parts.
By today’s standards the Dragoon in all its variants is still a capable machine and the dream of standardisation would not be realised even in today’s military’s where dozens of mech designs fulfil the same basic role, omni-mech or standard battlemech. If left as Emperor it is plausible that Amaris would have eventually standardised the armed forces under his control, a process begun with the Dragoon.
A 01 Dragoon, note the sloped and curved hull armour which clearly harken back to the Lancelot.
Any comments or thoughts are most welcome :)
