Blood Kite – redux!I realised my previous article didn’t do this brutally ugly, but brutally effective Mech the justice it deserved so here’s take two.
Background
Clan Blood Spirit was never blessed with an abundance of resources, this limited their Tourman to older IIC designs and the number of Omni’s they could produce, preferring instead to go with easier to produce and cheaper designs. They also developed a love affair with the LRM-15 and ER Large laser during their lean years.
Indeed with the introduction of the Omni-Mech and the Trials of Possession for the designs and Technology escalating to such size the Blood Spirits with their tiny Tourman were all but shoved out of the prospect of taking place in any Trial for the technology. Faced with this challenge, the Spirits Khan Ceana Boques, ordered her Scientists to produce future designs based around four simple principles.
1. Be as cheap as reasonable.
2. Have a good chance of surviving an engagement.
3. Be capable of sustaining a heavy barrage of fire.
4. Be as efficient as possible.
With this in mind the Scientists went to work and what they produced did fall into all four of Khan Boques’ criteria being simple to build, heavily armed, tough and brutally efficient.
DesignAt 85 tons the Blood Kite is quite a rare bean for Clan Mech’s as only the Wakazashi, Marauder IIC, Warhawk and much later Savage Coyote and Deimos fall into this weight category. With a 255-rated standard engine the Blood Kite isn’t going to win any foot races and can top out at a rather lumbering 56kph. But this isn’t too bad a draw back as the Mech is in essence a defensive one, built to engage anyone foolish enough to land on York.
The Scientists did however include fixed jump jets allowing for 90 meter leaps, giving the slow Mech a useful degree of tactical and strategic mobility.
The only ‘advanced’ and more resource intensive material that went into the Blood Kite was its endo-steel skeleton, but everything else was simple, at least by Clan standards.
A meaty 15-tons of standard plate give the Blood Kite the full level of protection the 85 ton chassis can carry and gives it the following layout.
9/27/39/27 (9/12/9)
24/24/30/30
With a lot of internal space to work with the Blood Spirit Scientists then crammed an additional 11 heatsinks into the hull allowing it to vent a fearsome amount of heat whilst still having room for weapons and ammunition and here they didn’t disappoint either.
The Mech’s design also makes it an utterly deadly Zombie-Mech. With a standard engine and Clan CASE and well placed weapons, the only way to take a Blood Kite down is to core it or rip its legs off and hope it lands chest down.
Unfortunately, one thing had to be sacrificed in the design and that was any attempt to make the Blood Kite look sleek or stylized. It is perhaps one of the most visually….
unique Clan Mechs ever made, and by any standards is either brutally ugly or kind of ‘looks like a bulldog chewing a wasp kind of ‘cute’. You all know how the Celestial series was made to look Alien, the Blood Kite looks at them and goes “Guuuuuuuuurl! PLEASE!” before putting them to shame.
VariantsBlood Kite – The marriage of Khan Boques design principles with the Blood Spirits near fetishizing love affair with the ER Large laser and LRM-15 the Blood Kite is as effective as it is ugly. With three ER Large lasers, one in the left arm, the others in the chest and head, the Blood Kite can start engaging at extreme ranges, and thanks to its 21 heatsinks it can volley its lasers all day long. A trio of LRM-15s, one in the right arm, and the others in the left and right torso add to the wall of firepower, letting this Mech lob 45 missiles down range.
Firing both main batteries will cause a significant heatspike but you could bracket fire by going 6-5-6-5, dropping an ER large each time and repeat until dead. The Blood Kite also carries 6 tons of ammo, two tons per launcher, giving it considerable battlefield endurance for a Clan Mech (see 3050 Omni’s where it seems that 1 ton of ammo could often be deemed excessive).
Finally if you manage to survive the wall of fire heading your way, you have a trio of SRM-4’s to contend with, although these are more defensive in nature and all three launchers share a single ton of ammo between them.
The Blood Kite is a brutally effective weapon, and with its head and chest mounted ER large lasers, it will still be shooting at you with both arms ripped off and its side torso’s gutted ruins.
Blood Kite 2 – To say that Clan Blood Spirit wasn’t very good at making friends is a bit of an understatement (up there with 'Clan Smoke Jaguar are a bit aggressive'). But during Khan Ceana Boques leadership they did make one friend who helped them in more ways than one. Kindraa Smythe-Jewel of Clan Fire Mandrill contacted the Spirits and offered an exchange. They would give the Blood Spirits Omni Technology in exchange for territory on the newly colonised world of Foster and some Genetic legacies.
Eventually the Spirits realised the Mandrill’s were serious in their offer and a Trial took place where honour was satisfied and both sides got what they wanted. With their friendship with Smythe-Jewel there also came a glut of higher tech equipment offered to the Blood Spirits by their Mandrill allies and this in turn was used on the Blood Kite 2.
Removing one LRM-15 and all three ER large lasers, the Blood Kite 2 gained Artemis IV fire control systems for the remaining LRM launchers and most impressively, a trio of ER PPCs. Unfortunately, no extra heatsinks were added so the Blood Kite 2 will start to overheat from just using the ER PPC’s and firing them and the LRM’s will result in a dangerous heat spike, but again, this can be somewhat countered by adopting a 5-3-5 firing pattern dropping an ER PPC and LRM every other time.
ThoughtsThe Blood Kite is a very potent beatstick that’s bloody hard to put down. Although slow the Mech’s built for defensive work on a single world and it has the firepower to reach out and touch you at very long range. Really the Blood Kite’s a pain to fight, and due to its zombie nature, you MUST keep shooting the damn thing until its CT gives out, you rip its head off, or remove both legs.
I personally prefer the standard version over the 2, it’s just that classic Spirit combo of LRMs and ER larges that works so very well together.
Using one is simple.
Is the enemy in range? If yes. Fire.
Is the enemy dead? If no, keep firing until they are.
Even the most advanced Omni or biggest 100 tonner would hate to be on the receiving end of a trio of ER large lasers and LRM-15’s. Whilst the ER PPC’s on the II do more damage, the machine loses its efficiency that makes it so utterly lethal.
We all know how brutal something with 4 clan large pulsers and a TC is, this is the ‘cheap’ and ‘low tech’ version of that level of brutality.
Fighting one is a case of being prepared to take a hammering doing so, and having to utterly destroy the bloody thing. Ammo crits are your friend but it’s so padded out with heatsinks and weapons that even finding them is a bit iffy. Basically. Good luck, and prepare to take losses, and if you face a Star of Blood Kites (and you probably would as the Spirits mass produced the damn thing) then pray to the Great Father. Or use orbital bombardment.
As always, thoughts and comments are most welcome.