Entering the prototype phase in the 3060s, the Hippopotamus was built for the Lyran Commonwealth by Bowie Industries from their Carlisle factory as a permanent garrison unit on highly aquatic worlds. Much like the design philosophy of the Atlas, the mech was designed to be big, tough, intimidating, and devastating at close range; but, also deceptively fast in its chosen environ to add to the fear factor. To that end a pair of ERPPCs were placed behind a jaw-like set of bay doors to give it long range firepower. A pair each of ER medium lasers and SRT6s mounted in a turret on the mech's back give it the desired close range punch. 4 UMUs and a MASS system give it the necessary equipment to operate underwater. Due to aquatic combat scenarios being quite rare, most of the relatively few Hippopotamus mechs produced would end up in the underwater arenas of Solaris VII where their relatively small ammo bins would be less of an issue.
Hippopotamus HPO-2S
Mass: 85 tons
Tech Base: Inner Sphere
Chassis Config: Quad
Rules Level: Experimental Tech
Era: Clan Invasion
Tech Rating/Era Availability: E/X-X-F-E
Production Year: 3070
Dry Cost: 17,521,350 C-Bills
Total Cost: 17,548,350 C-Bills
Battle Value: 2,026
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Equipment Type Rating Mass
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Internal Structure: Endo-Composite 138 points 6.50
Internal Locations: 1 CT, 1 LT, 1 RT, 1 FLL, 1 FRL, 1 RLL, 1 RRL
Engine: Light Fusion Engine 340 20.50
Walking MP: 4 (43.2 kph)
Running MP: 6 (64.8 kph)
Jumping MP: 4 UMU (120m)
Jump Jet Locations: 1 FLL, 1 FRL, 1 RLL, 1 RRL 4.00
Heat Sinks: Double Heat Sink 14(28) 4.00
Heat Sink Locations: 1 RT
Gyro: Standard 4.00
Cockpit: Standard 3.00
Actuators: L: H+UL+LL+F R: H+UL+LL+F
Armor: Standard Armor AV - 272 17.00
CASE Locations: 1 LT 0.50
Internal Armor
Structure Factor
Head 3 9
Center Torso 27 41
Center Torso (rear) 12
L/R Torso 18 25
L/R Torso (rear) 11
L/R Front Leg 18 35
L/R Rear Leg 18 34
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Equipment Location Heat Critical Mass
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2 ER PPCs RT 30 6 14.00
2 (T) ER Medium Lasers LT 10 2 2.00
2 (T) SRT-6s LT 8 4 6.00
M.A.S.S. HD 0 1 1.50
@SRT-6 (15) LT - 1 1.00
Quad Mech Turret LT - 1 1.00
Free Critical Slots: 1
BattleForce Statistics
MV S (+0) M (+2) L (+4) E (+6) Wt. Ov Armor: 9 Points: 20
4u 3 3 2 0 4 2 Structure: 2
Special Abilities: UMU, CASE, SRCH, ES, SEAL, SOA
A bit of a design inverse, the 3S uses two LRT15s for long range and a brace of ER medium lasers for short range bite. A rocket launcher 10 is added to use up the last half ton.
Hippopotamus HPO-3S
Mass: 85 tons
Tech Base: Inner Sphere
Chassis Config: Quad
Rules Level: Experimental Tech
Era: Clan Invasion
Tech Rating/Era Availability: E/X-X-E-D
Production Year: 3070
Dry Cost: 16,773,950 C-Bills
Total Cost: 16,863,950 C-Bills
Battle Value: 2,018
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Equipment Type Rating Mass
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Internal Structure: Standard 138 points 8.50
Engine: Light Fusion Engine 340 20.50
Walking MP: 4 (43.2 kph)
Running MP: 6 (64.8 kph)
Jumping MP: 4 UMU (120m)
Jump Jet Locations: 1 FLL, 1 FRL, 1 RLL, 1 RRL 4.00
Heat Sinks: Double Heat Sink 13(26) 3.00
Gyro: Standard 4.00
Cockpit: Standard 3.00
Actuators: L: H+UL+LL+F R: H+UL+LL+F
Armor: Standard Armor AV - 272 17.00
CASE Locations: 1 RT 0.50
Internal Armor
Structure Factor
Head 3 9
Center Torso 27 41
Center Torso (rear) 12
L/R Torso 18 25
L/R Torso (rear) 11
L/R Front Leg 18 35
L/R Rear Leg 18 34
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Equipment Location Heat Critical Mass
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2 LRT-15s RT 10 6 14.00
5 (T) ER Medium Lasers LT 25 5 5.00
Rocket Launcher 10 CT 3 1 0.50
M.A.S.S. HD 0 1 1.50
@LRT-15 (24) RT - 3 3.00
Quad Mech Turret LT - 1 0.50
Free Critical Slots: 9
BattleForce Statistics
MV S (+0) M (+2) L (+4) E (+6) Wt. Ov Armor: 9 Points: 20
4u 3 4 2 0 4 1 Structure: 5
Special Abilities: UMU, CASE, SRCH, ES, SEAL, SOA, TOR 1/2/2
Smelling a lucrative opportunity like blood in the water, Clan Diamond Shark would license the design to create their own version with superior clan tech. After refitting all the existing weapons to clan-specifications, a pair of small pulse lasers were ostensibly added to deal with infantry, but were more likely for laser light shows as the target audience for this variant were the Solaris gladiators. An upgrade to a clan-spec XL engine saved enough weight for Diamond Shark to add their proprietary HarJel to every location aside from the head to seal any breaches as long as the armor holds.
Like the 3S, the IIc 2 focuses mainly on a trio of LRT15s for its primary firepower, while the turret lasers are all swapped to clan pulses.
Hippopotamus IIc HPO-IIc
Mass: 85 tons
Tech Base: Clan
Chassis Config: Quad
Rules Level: Experimental Tech
Era: Clan Invasion
Tech Rating/Era Availability: F/X-X-E-E
Production Year: 3070
Dry Cost: 25,462,783 C-Bills
Total Cost: 25,489,783 C-Bills
Battle Value: 2,729
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Equipment Type Rating Mass
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Internal Structure: Standard 138 points 8.50
Engine: XL Fusion Engine 340 13.50
Walking MP: 4 (43.2 kph)
Running MP: 6 (64.8 kph)
Jumping MP: 4 UMU (120m)
Jump Jet Locations: 1 FLL, 1 FRL, 1 RLL, 1 RRL 4.00
Heat Sinks: Double Heat Sink 16(32) 6.00
Heat Sink Locations: 1 LT, 2 RT
Gyro: Standard 4.00
Cockpit: Standard w/ Full Head Ejection System 3.00
Actuators: L: H+UL+LL+F R: H+UL+LL+F
Armor: Standard Armor AV - 272 17.00
CASE Locations: LT 0.00
Internal Armor
Structure Factor
Head 3 9
Center Torso 27 40
Center Torso (rear) 11
L/R Torso 18 26
L/R Torso (rear) 10
L/R Front Leg 18 35
L/R Rear Leg 18 35
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Equipment Location Heat Critical Mass
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HarJel FRL 0 1 1.00
HarJel FLL 0 1 1.00
HarJel RT 0 1 1.00
2 ER PPCs RT 30 4 12.00
Small Pulse Laser RT 2 1 1.00
HarJel LT 0 1 1.00
2 (T) SRT-6s LT 8 2 3.00
2 (T) ER Medium Lasers LT 10 2 2.00
Small Pulse Laser LT 2 1 1.00
HarJel CT 0 1 1.00
M.A.S.S. HD 0 1 1.50
HarJel RRL 0 1 1.00
HarJel RLL 0 1 1.00
@SRT-6 (15) LT - 1 1.00
Quad Mech Turret LT - 1 0.50
Free Critical Slots: 1
BattleForce Statistics
MV S (+0) M (+2) L (+4) E (+6) Wt. Ov Armor: 9 Points: 27
4u 5 5 2 0 4 2 Structure: 5
Special Abilities: UMU, BHJ, CASE, SRCH, ES, SEAL, SOA
Hippopotamus IIc HPO-IIc-2
Mass: 85 tons
Tech Base: Clan
Chassis Config: Quad
Rules Level: Experimental Tech
Era: Clan Invasion
Tech Rating/Era Availability: F/X-X-E-E
Production Year: 3070
Dry Cost: 25,192,683 C-Bills
Total Cost: 25,282,683 C-Bills
Battle Value: 2,625
================================================================================
Equipment Type Rating Mass
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internal Structure: Standard 138 points 8.50
Engine: XL Fusion Engine 340 13.50
Walking MP: 4 (43.2 kph)
Running MP: 6 (64.8 kph)
Jumping MP: 4 UMU (120m)
Jump Jet Locations: 1 FLL, 1 FRL, 1 RLL, 1 RRL 4.00
Heat Sinks: Double Heat Sink 12(24) 2.00
Gyro: Standard 4.00
Cockpit: Standard w/ Full Head Ejection System 3.00
Actuators: L: H+UL+LL+F R: H+UL+LL+F
Armor: Standard Armor AV - 272 17.00
CASE Locations: RT 0.00
Internal Armor
Structure Factor
Head 3 9
Center Torso 27 40
Center Torso (rear) 11
L/R Torso 18 26
L/R Torso (rear) 10
L/R Front Leg 18 35
L/R Rear Leg 18 35
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Equipment Location Heat Critical Mass
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HarJel FRL 0 1 1.00
HarJel FLL 0 1 1.00
HarJel RT 0 1 1.00
3 LRT-15s RT 15 6 10.50
HarJel LT 0 1 1.00
5 (T) Medium Pulse Lasers LT 20 5 10.00
HarJel CT 0 1 1.00
M.A.S.S. HD 0 1 1.50
HarJel RRL 0 1 1.00
HarJel RLL 0 1 1.00
@LRT-15 (24) RT - 3 3.00
Quad Mech Turret LT - 1 1.00
Free Critical Slots: 4
BattleForce Statistics
MV S (+0) M (+2) L (+4) E (+6) Wt. Ov Armor: 9 Points: 26
4u 5 5 2 0 4 1 Structure: 5
Special Abilities: UMU, BHJ, CASE, SRCH, ES, SEAL, SOA, TOR 2/2/2