Shadow Knight SHD-2LC
Mass: 55 tons
Chassis: Lewis SHD
Power Plant: Core Tek 275
Cruising Speed: 54 kph
Maximum Speed: 86.4 kph
Jump Jets: Lewis LFT-50A
Jump Capacity: 150 meters
Armor: Duralex Lewiston Heavy
Armament:
2 Medium Laser
2 SRM 2
1 Large Laser
Manufacturer: Lewis Arms
Primary Factory: Lewiston
Communication System: Duotech 65
Targeting & Tracking System: Radcomm TXXA
Introduction Year: 3095
Tech Rating/Availability: D/X-X-X-D
Cost: 4,763,357 C-bills
Lewis County has always held its battlemech forces in high regard. Mechwarriors are functionally nobility within the County, and as some of the most sophisticated technological devices that can be produced by local industries, the mechs themselves are functionally symbols of wealth and status for the nation's elite families, and competition to own, or even just pilot these machines is so fierce as to be accurately described as cutthroat, and those who gain that honored position often can't help but see themselves as the elite of both the County's military but also its society.
Of course, the mechwarriors of Lewis County have for generations had little more than bandits or honor duels against their fellow warriors to prove their mettle against, and the contingent committed to the Magistracy during the Jihad would very rapidly realize how horrifically unprepared they were to face a foe like the Word of Blake. Beyond problems with doctrine, training, or interpersonal conflict was simple mathematics. Lewis County had its own mech production, but that began and ended with the twenty ton Stinging Wasp. They did supplement that production with imports from the Magistracy, but most of that, particularly in recent years, was just more twenty ton machines like the Locust, Wasp, and Stinger, with only a fraction being heavier mechs like the Shadow Hawk. So when they chose to rush to the aid of their mother realm, they were not just throwing a bug army at the Word of Blake and their allies, but an obsolete bug army. While the County's military would fight valiantly during the Jihad, it was the commoners of their armored and infantry forces that actually held the line while their mech forces were shattered and nearly wiped out on Canopus.
This stain on the honor of the battlemech corps could certainly not be allowed. Of course, the entirety of this deep periphery nation had the economic strength of a single moderately prosperous Inner sphere World divided among six fiercely competing noble houses, so while the Countess called for her industries to begin building more and bigger mechs as far back as 3075, it would be decades of corruption, recrimination, and frustration and trillions of LC-Dollars of taxpayer money before the first Shadow Knights would walk off the production lines on Lewiston, and while the result was an understandably capable design, a wonder weapon it definitely was not.
There is little point in sugar coating it. Beneath the smooth curves of an armored skin that very much gives the impression of a somewhat stocky renaissance knight in full plate, the Shadow Knight is a locally produced clone of the Shadow Hawk, from its engine to its frame to most of its subsystems. All in all, not an unreasonable approach to take. The Shadow Hawk has been for many generations the most common "heavy" (relative to the military's standard equipment) mech in the County's inventory, and its engineers are quite familiar with the design. The extensive asthetic choices that seem to have been included purely to disguise its origins do not appreciable change the machine's performance. The Shadow Knight possesses the same overall level of armor protection and the new outline does not appear to have compromised the mech's freedom of movement, but the insistence on this new appearance was doubtless just another contributor to the endless delays in getting the mech into production.
The changes made to the internals of the mech are much more practical. The predominantly ammo dependent armament of the original Shadow Hawk has been extensively revised, with a large laser now serving as the mech's primary weapon system, with a medium laser mounted in a semi-concealed "palm mount" in each arm. The head mounted SRM launcher has been retained, and is joined by a second SRM rack occupying roughly the space of the original Shadow Hawk's LRM launcher, giving the mech just a bit of extra close range firepower. Finally, additional jump jets have been added to the mech's feet, correcting a perennial complaint expressed by Shadow Hawk pilots all across the Inner Sphere. The focus on aesthetics would cause more problems to the earliest examples of the mech. In order to maintain the desired look of the Shadow Knight, both the missile racks and the arm mounted lasers are carried in concealed mounts. Armored hatches conceal the missiles, while in order to fire the medium lasers, the palm of the mech's hands must elevate to at least seventy degrees relative to the arm to expose the muzzle of the lasers. While automatic systems were put in place to ensure these weapons were properly unmasked before firing, programming errors in early models could cause these systems to fail, leading to mechs shooting off their own hands or even blowing a hole in their own heads. Fortunately, these problems have since been corrected in all current examples, though it is possible that some of the Shadow Knights being hoarded by the various noble houses of Lewis County may still possess the programming defect.
The Shadow Knight was developed with the lofty goal of becoming the standard battlemech of Lewis County's military, and thirty five years later, this has not happened. Part of the reason is that Lewis County simply doesn't have the production capacity to build large numbers of Shadow Knights quickly, but the primary reason is once again County politics. Instead of simply being issued to the military, often newly built Shadow Knights are instead being hoarded by various noble houses or even the ruling Count himself, to be distributed sparingly to prestigious warriors to curry favor, trade for concessions, or to be used to show wealth. It is particularly telling that while as many as one hundred and fifty Shadow Knights have been produced by Lewis Arms, only twenty have actually been seen actively in service with the County's military, and the mech is still slightly outnumbered by its imported progenitor the Shadow Hawk.
Variants:
Despite the problems actually getting the Shadow Knight into the hands of the military, a variant has still managed to appear, popularized by the mechwarriors of the 18th Black Squadron (The Rim Lords). This variant replaces the missile launchers and a single heat sink for a heavy blade stylized after a traditional claymore (though in practice it lacks the finesse of the typical "swords" used by inner sphere mechs). In order to use the blade and the arm mounted lasers effectively, the right arm laser is moved to a blister on the left arm, somewhat spoiling the aesthetics of the arm in the process. Possibly due to the deeply entrenched dueling culture among the County's nobility, this modification is quite sought after, though the actual number currently in service is believed to be well in the single digits.
Allegedly, Lewis Arms has also built a model using imported advanced weapons specifically for Count Allain Lewis himself. This swaps the large laser for an extended range model and replaces both short range missile packs with a small multi-missile system and a CASE protected ammunition bay. Overall, the result is a slightly hotter running mech (particularly as the modification also required removing one heat sink) but it gives the machine an ability to snipe opponents that the standard model lacks, and the prestige of being one of the few mechwarriors to pilot a machine using advanced technology is a powerful incentive the Count can offer to coax pilots into his influence.
Type: Shadow Knight
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Introductory)
Tonnage: 55
Battle Value: 1,242
Equipment Mass
Internal Structure 5.5
Engine 275 Fusion 15.5
Walking MP: 5
Running MP: 8
Jumping MP: 5
Heat Sink 16 6
Gyro 3
Cockpit 3
Armor Factor 152 9.5
Internal Armor
Structure Value
Head 3 9
Center Torso 18 23
Center Torso (rear) 8
R/L Torso 13 18
R/L Torso (rear) 6
R/L Arm 9 16
R/L Leg 13 16
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
Jump Jet LL 1 - 0.5
Jump Jet CT 1 - 0.5
SRM 2 Ammo (50) CT 1 - 1.0
3 Heat Sink RT 3 - 3.0
Jump Jet RT 1 - 0.5
SRM 2 RT 1 2 1.0
Medium Laser LA 1 3 1.0
2 Heat Sink LT 2 - 2.0
Jump Jet LT 1 - 0.5
Large Laser LT 2 8 5.0
Jump Jet RL 1 - 0.5
SRM 2 HD 1 2 1.0
Medium Laser RA 1 3 1.0
Features the following design quirks: Battle Fists (LA), Battle Fists (RA), Improved Life Support, Rugged (1 Point)
Record sheets for the Shadow Knight and literally hundreds of other units suitable for a periphery campaign can be downloaded through the link in the first post of this thread:
https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=84454.0Author Note: It abruptly occurred to me while writing this that I've done two shadow hawks for two different deep periphery states who treat their mechwarriors like nobility in a row. Funny how things work out. If you happen to be wondering what the difference is between the two (aside from one having objectively better kit), it's kinda like this:
Mechwarriors of Plymoth have landholds, subjects, and political power. Mechwarriors of Lewis County are more like celebrities. Put another way, mechwarriors in Plymoth have intrigue, mechwarriors in Lewis County have drama.
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