Rover Labormech RVR-1B
Mass: 10 tons
Chassis: Bluth Industrial Rover-2
Power Plant: Renault 40 ICE
Cruising Speed: 43.2 kph
Maximum Speed: 64.8 kph
Jump Jets: None
Jump Capacity: 0 meters
Armor: Caterpillar IndusWeave
Manufacturer: Bluth Corporation, Rim Motors, Bordello Military Goods
Primary Factory: Terra (production halted 2800), Otisberg, Antwerp
Communication System: Marconi 47-B
Targeting & Tracking System: None
Introduction Year: 2580
Tech Rating/Availability: D/F-D-D-D
Cost: 530,198 C-bills
Once a common site across the entirety of human occupied space, the Rover is a simple, cheap design intended to function as essentially an eight meter tall general laborer, relying on its size, lifting capacity, and a limited modular capability to handle whatever tasks it might be assigned. Manufactured by the Bluth Corporation on Terra beginning in the late 26th century, hundreds of thousands of these dependable little mechs would ultimately be built and see service in a wide variety of industries such as factory work, forestry, cargo loading, security, fire fighting, and many others. Though never quite as effective in most of these roles than more specialized machines, the Rover was often adequate as a "starter" or "assistant" platform, and came in at a price point attractive to companies both large and small.
The principle feature of the rover, aside from its low cost and simple construction, is the modular hardpoint mounted on the right arm which allows for the quick and easy installation or removal of a variety of different tool modules as appropriate for the unit's assigned task. Swapping to a new tool is a matter of one or two hours work even with a minimum of support facilities, and the majority of that time is normally taken verifying power connections and updates to the mech's operating software for its new equipment. In many respects, this is similar to the famous Omnimech, though the modular technology is much less sophisticated and much more limited in scope. The mounting point, for example, is fully exposed on the arm, and thus susceptible to breakage in the event of misadventure. And the mech's modular capability is limited to that single mounting point on the arm. Because of the mech's most prominent modern use (in the forestry industry) the most familiar layout mounts a retractable blade to the hardpoint, able to make slow but steady work clearing brush and felling even large trees.
As stated before, hundreds of thousands of Rovers were sold across both the Inner Sphere and the Periphery during the Star League era. However the vast majority would be casualties of the Succession Wars, either directly, with the facilities where they were operated coming under attack, or indirectly, with the scavenger economy of the Inner Sphere and the major periphery states scrapping these low value machines for their myomers, gyroscopes, electronics, or simply any materials that might be more useful feeding their struggling war machine. Deeper into the periphery, away from the endless fighting and social collapse, the Rover tended to have better luck, and many of these machines still soldier on providing useful services to isolated worlds or microstates outside the reach of the Great Houses, and the design appears to be particularly common in the Hanseatic League, which initiated its own production program sometime in the late 30th century. In 3063, the Rim Collection would also begin producing small numbers of Rovers, both for industrial use and for more exotic work on Hunter's Paradise. Despite new Rovers being built on the Inner Sphere's doorstep, the mech would fail to break back into the Inner Sphere market, first due to the general instability of the FedCom Civil War and the Jihad, and later due to stiff competition from Waytani's Exo haulermech, which overall proved to be a more capable and popular choice.
Variants:
In addition to the retractable blade used primarily for forestry work (and sometimes for megafauna ranching), other industrial tool options such as rivet guns for construction or a sprayer for firefighting, cleaning, or paint work were also available. A somewhat more militant configuration intended for police work mounted a machine gun, and the Star League would deploy thousands of these mechs as part of the drawdown of forces in the Periphery following the Reunification War. The hope was that these mechs would be enough of a deterrent to keep resistance in check without the aggressive posture of keeping a large military occupation force, however results were mixed. Rovers armed with machine guns were poorly equipped for dispersing a resisting populace without causing excessive bloodshed, even when equipped with less lethal ammunition, and to more determined partisans, they were seen as relatively easy targets due to their weak armor and their particular vulnerability to incendiaries. Though losses of personnel and civilian casualties in clashes with the public were relatively light during this period, they were heavy enough (particularly in the Concordat) that the occupation governments found it necessary to abandon using Rovers as policemechs. Many of these former policemechs would later be handed over to the Periphery states after the occupation ended, leading to them being repurposed for industrial work. Today, the majority of armed Rovers in existence are used to police the worlds of the Hanseatic League, though the rare lone examples might be found on various deep periphery worlds, and a small handful are used on Hunters Paradise either for hunting or protecting an expedition from the local megafauna. To further cater to thrill seeking big game hunters, the Rim Collection would also create the HNT configuration in the 3060s. This mounts a single shot rocket launcher, mostly intended to scatter smaller beasts and get the attention of bigger game, which the hunter can then (attempt to) dispatch with the sword mounted to the hand. Of course, slaying an enraged Megalosaurus Tyrranus in hand to hand combat is no easy feet, even in a small mech, and each prospective hunter must hand over both a considerable fee and a signed waiver of indemnity before they make the attempt.
In addition to the many other roles the Rover has served in, the Bluth Corporation also created a variant for operation in hazardous environments, however the necessary modifications to mount the environmental sealing also meant the modular mount had to be deleted entirely, greatly limiting the mech's usefulness, and only a small number were ever built. The closest thing to a major user was the Capellan Navy which used Rovers as heavy labor units aboard the Soyal class cruiser, particularly for moving the massive slugs for the ship's mass driver from the hold to the ready magazine.
And of course, it should come as little surprise that given the modular mount that is central to the design and the mech's centuries long history, there are many Rovers that will commonly operate with absolutely nothing mounted to that hardpoint, either because its current task doesn't require a tool or its owners no longer have a tool to mount to the hardpoint. These mechs must instead rely on their brute strength and the creativity of the pilot to accomplish whatever jobs are required, and most commonly their primary role is to move heavy objects from one point to another.
Type: Rover Labormech
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Standard)
Tonnage: 10
Battle Value: 71
Equipment Mass
Internal Structure Industrial 2
Engine 40 ICE 2
Walking MP: 4
Running MP: 6
Jumping MP: 0
Heat Sink 0 0
Gyro 1
Cockpit 3
Armor Factor (Commercial) 24 1
Internal Armor
Structure Value
Head 3 2
Center Torso 4 3
Center Torso (rear) 1
R/L Torso 3 3
R/L Torso (rear) 1
R/L Arm 1 2
R/L Leg 2 3
Right Arm Actuators: Shoulder, Upper Arm, Lower Arm, Hand
Left Arm Actuators: Shoulder, Upper Arm, Lower Arm, Hand
Weapons
and Ammo Location Critical Heat Tonnage
Retractable Blade RA 2 - 1.0
Features the following design quirks: Jettison Capable Weapon (Retractable Blade), Modular Weapon (Retractable Blade), Exposed Weapon Linkage (Retractable Blade)
Record sheets for the various versions of the Rover can be found in Record Sheets: Beyond the Frontier! which can be downloaded through the link in the first post on this thread:
https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=84454.0
Author's note: The Bluth Corporation, which is a major manufacturer of industrialmechs in the battletech universe (responsible for the Carbine and Buster industrialmechs), is presumably a reference to the TV show Arrested Development, which I have never watched and don't really know anything about. So if I somehow managed to put something in the fluff that sounded like a reference to the series, it was entirely accidental.
The Rover's semi-modular nature is entirely down to its design quirks and proper use of the customization rules. In essence, each variant (except the EV model) also constitutes a refit kit of each other model, which effectively reduces the time to modify it to one of those other configurations by half. This is halved again by the Modular Weapon quirk. This means that, for example, switching from a version with a retractable blade to one with a machine gun should only take one hour instead of four if you were doing the conversion from scratch.
Also, according to the guy who created the Soyal, that bit about industrialmechs walking around carrying mass driver slugs is actually what they intended and is why the ship has mech bays in the first place.
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