Rhino Assault battle armour.

[marauder648]

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.

Code: [Select]

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



Code: [Select]

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?

[Maingunnery]

So it is basically an airdrop capable clan LRM-20 turret?

Let me get some Kirghiz C's here....

[marauder648]

Basically yes.  Just an idea that came up from another discussion regarding a WI and the Clans. IE they don't sit on their butts and actually innovate with regards to Mechs and BA.

It started with the idea that the Hellions might push for something faster than the standard BA suit as we know that Clan Meth Bugs don't do slow, and even with its 90 meter leap, the Elemental might be too slow for them, so you get basically the Afreet a few decades early.  This starts off a slew of other designs from other Clans.  The Horses work on the Gnome and the Bears do the 'ol 'anything you can do we can do better' that runs deep in the Clans and make their own Assault suit but do the typical Bear thing and add mass.

Its slow as hell but clever use of as you said, the Kirghiz C or a modified Anhur to move them around and you've got a tough thing that's built to out shoot anything that goes after it or comes near it.  And the LRM versions let them act like a LRM-20 as you pointed out.  And no one wants that shooting at them :p

[James Tanaga]

I like this suit. A lot!

[marauder648]

Thank you :) Its basically a Clanazuchi.  on the standard suit the power packs more there for fluff (not sure if it increases the number of shots for the lasers or not) whilst the Support suit is..err..well its a support suit and has the typical missile battery one might expect on such a suit.  Not sure on how it would look.  Initial thought was something a bit like this

http://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/37000000/The-Amazing-Spider-Man-2-Concept-Arts-spider-man-37060333-750-480.jpg

without a big cockpit area like the Warg which just looked like a MASSIVE weakspot.   Instead the pilots viewport is below the head section but they'd see through the suits sensors in its 'head' (and other input/cameras across the body, letting the Elemental look around and not forcing them to rely on visually aquiring a target) and would basically be sat in the chest.  The lasers mounted on the suit's forearms with the MG firing over the shoulder. 

[truetanker]

On the Support, I'd have gone for the LRM 3, more ammo... Possible a Torso mounted Flame to give the wienies a hot time. This could be in the form of a Mauser IIC using Inferno rounds. I'd take a load of Pulse Lasers Rifles as the AP guns. -2 to hit and a slightly better " hosing " than a standard beam weapon. Though an Auto-Rifle could do the same... Maybe a searchlight or a single JJ so combat drops can be had?

Could you check the math and see what the possibility would look like, please?

TT