DEVELOPMENT
The very first Crawler blueprint was drawn on paper in 3048. This blueprint featured much less armor, half the weight, and a lighter main gun, most likely an Autocannon, and was intended to carry and support the Republic's Shocktrooper PA(L) suits as a cheap replacement of the Crossroad Republic's aging Goblin tanks, dating back to the Star League Era. This version never made it to the prototype stage.
After news of the Clan Invasion reached the Republic, the Republic elected to covertly assist the Inner Sphere through a volunteer force under the name of one of their client states. The volunteer force, known as "Task Force Buckler", participated in defense of the Inner Sphere against the invading Clans throughout the war, though the majority of their actions were in low-value, low-intensity locations.
That changed in 3052, when Task Force Buckler joins ComStar's defense in the Battle of Tukkayid. The battle was the first fight where the Task Force took heavy casualties, and the first fight where the Task Force encountered Elemental Battle Armor (AKA "Toads") in earnest. Roadie Infantry took massive losses trying to retake a city from Jade Falcon Elementals, and it quickly became clear that their native PA(L) suits were no match for the Toads too.
News of the battle and intel reached the Crossroad Republic's homeworld via a combination of HPG and Jumpship Couriers. The technology of the Clans easily rivaled that of the Republic and surpassed them in some areas, with their Elemental Battle Armor being a particular point of consternation. The Crossroadian top brass decided that a direct answer to the Elemental was sorely needed.
However, Task Force Buckler and their salvage was still in the middle of the Inner Sphere and would continue to be there for a while. The Crossroad Republic's engineers, did not have the physical examples of the Elemental BA suits to work off of and thus had to work entirely off of word-of-mouth received from the task force, which was not terribly specific. (A laser arm cannon, a horrid claw arm, and enough missiles to blot out the sky were some of the descriptions Roadie grunts gave the engineers. One even alleged that he witnessed a Toad take a Gauss Rifle to the chest and get back up!)
The resultant suit design ended up around 5 times heavier than the currently existing Shocktrooper PA(L) suits that were standard in the Crossroadian Army. Armed with a medium laser variant and a large missile rack, the new suit was much too heavy and bulky to fit in any existing Crossroadian APC or IFV.
The requirement to carry this new suit was pushed onto the Crawler IFV, which had yet to reach the prototype stage. The design requirement of carrying an entire squad of these new Battle Armor suits, which for Crossroadian doctrine means six battle suits, by itself pushed up the tonnage of the Crawler IFV by around 20 tons. Now at 60 tons, the original planned armament was thought to be completely insufficient to support the suits on the new battlefield, and the armament was pushed up from its light autocannon to a full Gauss Rifle virtually lifted from the Republic's Charger MBT designs, adding about 10 tons more. The additional armor plating and heavier engine required for a decent speed, plus some miscellaneous equipment, added the last 10 tons for a total of 80 tons, and the first prototype of the Crawler IFV rolled off the production lines in 3055.
The first actual, physical models of the Elemental Battle Armor arrives in Crossroad Republic space in 3058. The engineers that worked on the Republic's new suit were surprised to discover that the Elemental was nothing like what they had envisioned from the grunt's testimony. Compared to their new suit, the Toad was half the weight, had a far smaller missile pack, and a smaller laser for its main gun. The Toad even had a jump pack, which wasn't mentioned in the Roadie's testimonies. (Though, in fairness, the Elementals were probably not doing much jumping inside the buildings, which is where most of them were encountered during the city sweeping at Tukayyid.)
So, the Crawler was redesigned based on the creation of a new BA suit, and that new BA suit was designed based upon extremely vague to the point of faulty intel. But by 3058, it was too late to go back; Both the Crawler and the new BA suit were in full production. The Republic would simply have to find a way to incorporate the new vehicle and BA suit into their doctrine.
DESCRIPTION
The Crawler is very easy to identify on the field. Its size necessitated a 12x12 wheel drive, with 2 of the wheels located towards the front alongside a turret that looks like it was nearly lifted off the Charger tank, and 8 of the wheels towards the back near the infantry bay.
The AFV variants are similar, but has a slightly cut back chassis due to not requiring the space to transport suits themselves. Their turrets are bulkier-looking than the IFV variants thanks to having the spare weight for more weaponry, with the Mk.IIA variant having a particularly impressive snout in mounting its Long Tom Artillery Piece.
CAPABILITIES
All of the Crawler IFV/AFV variants are designed to work with each other and their Assault BA accompaniments in Crossroadian "Heavy Motorized" formations.
The Crawler IFV is capable of carrying an entire 6-man squad of the Crossroad Republic's Assault Battle Armor Suits at a reasonable pace while supporting them with long-ranged fire. This support ranges from long-range direct fire support with a Gauss Rifle to very-long ranged artillery support with Arrow IV Artillery in the A variants. Some normal Mk.I and Mk.II IFV variants are modified in the field with a TAG laser to make better use of their Arrow IV support. These field modifications are known as "Crawler Specials".
The Crawler AFV is designed to provide heavier, more comprehensive fire support than the Crawler IFV is capable of providing by replacing the infantry bay. The standard versions of these adds secondary weapons, specifically arrays of missiles. The A variants are designed to provide integrated artillery support using tube artillery, and the B variants provide integrated anti-aircraft coverage.
The Mk.II variants upgrade the 300 Fuel Cell engine to a Vlar 300 XLE, thickens the armor protection, and typically uses the spare heat sinks and weight to include a Plasma Cannon coaxial to the main weapon system, burying hostile infantry, BA, and armor under superheated foam.
DEPLOYMENT
The Mk.I Crawlers were built and assigned to new Heavy Motorized formations by 3060. The Mk.II Crawlers were built and deployed as replacements to the Mk.I in the 3080s. Not much of a reputation has been built around them because not many Crawlers have fired in anger. The Crossroad Republic apparently prefers to use their heavier, slower formations as a "force-in-being" while not directly joining in engagements, and use their faster, more agile and usually cheaper forces to do the main fighting.
Heavy motorized formations with Crawlers did participate in some engagements during the 1st Falcon-Crossroadian War, and is generally thought to have performed reasonably well. More important than the Crawlers themselves were the support elements integrated into the formations, including artillery and anti-aircraft variants, as well as the Assault BA suits carried by the IFVs.
These suits proved to be an extremely unpleasant surprise for the Jade Falcon toads. At one point in the war, the 4th Republic Heavy Motorized RCT was tasked to retake a city from the occupying Falcons. In a complete reversal from Tukkayid, Jade Falcon's elementals found themselves outmatched by the Republic's battlesuits and were quickly forced out of the buildings and into the streets. After which, it took a matter of hours for the Crawler IFVs and AFVs to methodically clean the streets of the remaining Elementals and their Omnimech transports, in cooperation with their Crossroadian Assault Troopers.
