The Scorpion Empire: All your Warhawks are belong to us

[rebs]

call Daryk to the party now

Duct-tape Daryk with the heavy blazer! 

[truetanker]

Blazer Pulse anyone?

I'll see my way out...

Ohhh... shiny, I yoinks!

TT

[DOC_Agren]

Blazer Pulse anyone?

I'll see my way out...

Ohhh... shiny, I yoinks!

TT

TT stop now.. poor Daryk might not make it with a Pulse Heavy Blazer

[JAMES_PRYDE]

A what if scenario for the Scorpions (Empire), "IF" they still had the hardware, and (developing) expertise to maintain Protomech deployment and their Pilots, what would it look like, and originally did the Scorps buy into Protos when they first came out, or just had a "sample"

[Metallgewitter]

According to the FM 3067 the Scorpions had only begun to introduce Protomechs to their touman at that point. The first deployemnt was with Chi Galaxy as a test and they were more focusing on using their new Undine battle armor at that point. And well we all know what happened after 3067 so my best guess would be limited deployment but stopped due to the necessities of the war and later relocation

[tassa_kay]

A what if scenario for the Scorpions (Empire), "IF" they still had the hardware, and (developing) expertise to maintain Protomech deployment and their Pilots, what would it look like, and originally did the Scorps buy into Protos when they first came out, or just had a "sample"

The Scorpions never lost the hardware and expertise to maintain ProtoMech deployment, they just fell under the aegis of a writer who doesn't like them and subsequently made a specific point to phase them out of use (using shaky-at-best in-universe logic, IMO).

As for the Scorpions' original buy-in, TRO 3075 notes in the Triton entry that initially their ProtoMech program faltered, but they were able to secure needed resources from the Ravens and jumpstart their program, and the Triton is the result of that.

There's really no logical reason that the Scorpions aren't still using Protos, IMO. They're cheap (just ask the Blood Spirits), they don't have to rely on failed aerospace phenotype washouts (again, just ask the Blood Spirits), and they could be filling a niche in the touman.

Alas.

[Gaiiten]

Or we can get that holiest of grails, the improved heavy laser blazer!

Did the Republic of the Sphere not try this with the Hyper Lasers? As if they combined two Clantech ER Lasers.

[Fire Scorpion IIC]

According to the FM 3067 the Scorpions had only begun to introduce Protomechs to their touman at that point. The first deployemnt was with Chi Galaxy as a test and they were more focusing on using their new Undine battle armor at that point. And well we all know what happened after 3067 so my best guess would be limited deployment but stopped due to the necessities of the war and later relocation

Spot on, timeline fits perfectly

Plus it never made any sense for Scorpions to be using Protos in the first place

Protomechs are rationalized by writters as being cheap (lol) solution for a clan which is running out of resources

Scorpions made their entire living by extracting and processing abundant resources of their two resource rich planets

To say nothing of the fact that they always had decent amount of second line units and healthy recruitment pool for them

Only lore accurate reason for wasting time with Protos was FOMO, they have been late to Omnimech game before and had problems catching up so once new cool looking winderwaffle started getting hyped up they played it safe and got onto it but even then it was a second fiddle to more important projects like Undine

In the end the new wunderwaffle turned out to be a boondoggle so come first big budget overhaul (post exodus) they were discontinued

To say nothing of the mountain of freshly built vehicles, military mech and billions of newly available freeborns to cherry pick crews from once Imperio got off the ground



But that Triton protomech blueprints could be a good trade item for Hell's Horses, trading it for something Scorpions could actually use like Elemental III, Notos or Eurus would be a smart play

[Tyler Jorgensson]

I just wish the remaining Clans stopped treating the ‘abjured’ Clans like Dark Caste. The Nova Cats, Wolves in Exile, Steel Wolves, and Scorpions should have been forgiven (for different reasons) by the IlClan era by whatever’s left of the Council of Six. Alaric in IKEO needs to put out a banner to all Clans to reunite… but he won’t cause just see how he treated the Wolfs Dragoons after all.

[tassa_kay]

I just wish the remaining Clans stopped treating the ‘abjured’ Clans like Dark Caste. The Nova Cats, Wolves in Exile, Steel Wolves, and Scorpions should have been forgiven (for different reasons) by the IlClan era by whatever’s left of the Council of Six. Alaric in IKEO needs to put out a banner to all Clans to reunite… but he won’t cause just see how he treated the Wolfs Dragoons after all.

The Nova Cats betrayed the other Clans and became housecats for a Successor State. The Exiled Wolves were already welcomed back into the fold, such as they were. The Steel Wolves were never a Clan in the first place. The Scorpions chose their side. They're all where they need to be.

[JAMES_PRYDE]

Back to Protos for a sec, the point why I bought it up, was that Shrapnel story about the "last" Scorpion Empire Proto Pilot, and the script was she was the last of her kind so to speak, as they did not have resources to continue.

So it was from there I was saying "IF" they had resources to continue the programme, would they?

[tassa_kay]

So it was from there I was saying "IF" they had resources to continue the programme, would they?

There's no real way to answer that, because it depends on who is writing them.

[ArkRoyalRavager]

Spot on, timeline fits perfectly

Plus it never made any sense for Scorpions to be using Protos in the first place

Protomechs are rationalized by writters as being cheap (lol) solution for a clan which is running out of resources

Scorpions made their entire living by extracting and processing abundant resources of their two resource rich planets

To say nothing of the fact that they always had decent amount of second line units and healthy recruitment pool for them

Only lore accurate reason for wasting time with Protos was FOMO, they have been late to Omnimech game before and had problems catching up so once new cool looking winderwaffle started getting hyped up they played it safe and got onto it but even then it was a second fiddle to more important projects like Undine

In the end the new wunderwaffle turned out to be a boondoggle so come first big budget overhaul (post exodus) they were discontinued

To say nothing of the mountain of freshly built vehicles, military mech and billions of newly available freeborns to cherry pick crews from once Imperio got off the ground



But that Triton protomech blueprints could be a good trade item for Hell's Horses, trading it for something Scorpions could actually use like Elemental III, Notos or Eurus would be a smart play

This. Totally agreed. Protos are add an unnecessary extra layer to the logistics burden, require a higher technology base, and are a waste of pilots given the short life expectancy of the EI system. The waste averse Clans will phase it out as soon as they can.

[Weirdo]

So I'm imagining a Star of mechs to be used by cadets in their later years of training. In normal circumstances they would regularly cycle through each of the machines, though in the more important exercises, the cadet with the highest rankings (or Trialed for it) would use the actual BattleMech.

Reptar
Reptar
Araña
Araña
???

Any thoughts for the last machine? I'm not thinking of an OmniMech, though I would prefer something that focuses on weapons types the IndyMechs lack, like missiles and PPCs.

[LordTree]

Maybe a Griffin IIC or a Star Python? Drift Shag is also in that same weight bracket

[Fire Scorpion IIC]

Back to Protos for a sec, the point why I bought it up, was that Shrapnel story about the "last" Scorpion Empire Proto Pilot, and the script was she was the last of her kind so to speak, as they did not have resources to continue.

So it was from there I was saying "IF" they had resources to continue the programme, would they?

They didn't have any more spare parts for protos since they went through the stockpiles they brought from the Homeworlds and haven't been manufacturing more

They had plenty of resources they just decided not to invest them into protomech program anymore

So I'm imagining a Star of mechs to be used by cadets in their later years of training. In normal circumstances they would regularly cycle through each of the machines, though in the more important exercises, the cadet with the highest rankings (or Trialed for it) would use the actual BattleMech.

Reptar
Reptar
Araña
Araña
???

Any thoughts for the last machine? I'm not thinking of an OmniMech, though I would prefer something that focuses on weapons types the IndyMechs lack, like missiles and PPCs.

I think Wasp would fit

Medium Laser and SRM2


They nabbed two Wasp factories from Castilians and Umayyads so that one should be available in abundance

Maybe even Shadow Hawk C if they feel like spending more (LB 5-X, LRM-5, SRM-2, ERM Laser), also two factories for this one too




LordTree mentioned Drift Shag, that one would probably end up in training regiment too

I do wonder how redesigned Drift Shag would look?

[glitterboy2098]

i'd assume that a lot of times the 5th member of a training Star would be an instructor, with a proper mech to let them ride herd on the trainees. probably a star league or cheaper clan built unit, something that wouldn't be in big demand on the frontlines. i'd also expect something as fast or faster than the trainee's mechs, so the instructor can rundown a trainee that ranges too far away from the group.

honestly, could easily justify a Chameleon. it's a 6/9/6 vs the Arana and Reptar's 5/8, and the chameleon is a traditional SLDF training mech so an old CLN-7V could easily be justified.

[Starfury]

Commando IIC. They're easy to make, easy to support, and make great light Star commanders.