Wow, I completely forgot about that one. Cudos to Cubby for adding that Machine in there!
So, a bit of a "liner note" here - that 'Mech really was the spark for this entire product.
I really liked the entry in XTRO: Phantoms, and was determined to do
something with the 'Mech in question someday. I thought it might be a BattleCorps story, but otherwise had put it in the back of my mind. That is, until the solicitations for "Spotlight On" went out--I knew I wanted to do a post-Jihad unit, ideally a Republic one, and pairing the Stone's Trackers option with that 'Mech felt like a total chocolate-meets-peanut butter moment.
Building out the backstory for why that 'Mech exists, how it would be used, and how it would fit in with a unit called the "212th Nova Cat Headhunter Binary" really just formed a natural skeleton for the story.