Clan Goliath Scorpion was in a poor state when it absorbed Nuevo Castile, particularly in terms of its ability to manufacture replacement equipment. While they had taken what industrial equipment they could from their last holdouts in the Homeworlds, the machine tooling wouldn't be of any use until it was actually installed, and the Clan would still face shortages of critical resources and subcomponents for their most advanced technologies for decades to come as they struggled to properly establish themselves on the Castillian worlds.
However, the needs of the Warrior Caste could not simply be put aside, with hostile powers not far away and regularly probing the territory of the new Imperio for weaknesses or opportunities. The clan thus began settling for less, concentrating on producing less sophisticated, simpler weapons and equipment as their weapon industries struggled to recover, or simply get established.
The first generation of Elemental armor produced in the Imperio are a clear example of those compromises. While visually not terribly different from standard elemental armor (with one very obvious exception), they are built to simpler, some might say cruder design standards. The first notable compromise made is that these suits lack the harjel system that is otherwise standard on Elemental armor. At the time, harjel was a resource in critically short supply to the touman, with no expectation of those supplies being replenished, and the difficulty of integrating a harjel system into the relatively crude design was thus considered more trouble than it was worth. The weight saved from omitting the system did allow this version of elemental armor to carry a potentially greater combat load than a standard elemental, though even this was of questionable utility.
The second compromise in the design is responsible for the suit's distinctive visual appearance. The cruder design of this generation of suits is overall more cumbersome and less agile than the standard Elemental, to the point where it is unable to safely use its jump jets when the standard missile pack is attached. Designers anticipated that warriors would be deeply uncomfortable with this restriction to their mobility, enough to likely discard the missile pack either immediately or after only a single volley of missiles to grant them something closer to their full range of mobility. The twin pack with its single reload of missiles was therefore replaced with a single shot missile system. The weight saved from removing the reloads and the feed system for them allowed the designers to up the total number of missile tubes from two to six in a hulking and visually striking backpack mount which gives the armor the capacity for a devastating initial volley. Notably this missile pack is (with some small modification and a software update to the suit) entirely compatible with standard elemental armor, giving even the more conventional suits that would follow this first generation the option for such a withering opening salvo.
The suit's primary weapon mount is little changed from the classic loadout of Elementals stretching back to their introduction. Notably absent from these suits are more advanced weapons such as the Micro Pulse Laser and the AP Gauss, a deliberate decision to conserve these weapons for more experienced troops using standard battle armor, and instead the old standbys of small laser, machine gun, and flamer are normally issued. As mentioned before, the weight saved from omitting the harjel system does give this generation of suits a bit more flexibility however, and recoiless rifles or the blakist designed King David Gauss are also possible options.
This first generation of newly manufactured Elemental Armor would only be in production for about a decade until the Imperio was able to switch back to standard Elemental production (though as noted before, the suit's distinctive missile pack would find a second life with these newer suits as an optional refit), and these older suits would be gradually shifted to second line or locally raised troops, who are at the very least happy to have them. With the Imperio still only making slow progress on bringing its military industries to clan standards, these suits are likely to remain in service for years to come.
Elemental (Imperio)
Type: Elemental
Manufacturer: Unknown
Primary Factory: Unknown
Tech Base: Mixed (Standard)
Chassis Type: Biped
Weight Class: Medium
Maximum Weight: 1,000 kg
Equipment Slots Mass
Chassis: 175 kg
Motive System:
Ground MP: 1 0 kg
Jump MP: 3 150 kg
Manipulators:
Left Arm: Battle Claw 15 kg
Right Arm: None 0 kg
Armor: Standard (Basic) 0 250 kg
Armor Value: 10
(Small Laser) Slots
Weapons and Equipment Location (Capacity) Mass
SRM 6 Body 4 120 kg
Anti Personnel Weapon Mount Left Arm 1 5 kg
Small Laser Right Arm 1 200 kg
Battle Value: 398
(Recoilless Rifle) Slots
Weapons and Equipment Location (Capacity) Mass
SRM 6 Body 4 120 kg
Anti Personnel Weapon Mount Left Arm 1 5 kg
BA Recoilless Rifle Right Arm 2 250 kg
Battle Value: 506
(Machine Gun) Slots
Weapons and Equipment Location (Capacity) Mass
SRM 6 Body 4 120 kg
Anti Personnel Weapon Mount Left Arm 1 5 kg
Machine Gun Right Arm 1 100 kg
Battle Value: 355
(King David) Slots
Weapons and Equipment Location (Capacity) Mass
SRM 6 Body 4 120 kg
Anti Personnel Weapon Mount Left Arm 1 5 kg
Gauss Rifle Right Arm 2 275 kg
Battle Value: 377
(Flamer) Slots
Weapons and Equipment Location (Capacity) Mass
SRM 6 Body 4 120 kg
Anti Personnel Weapon Mount Left Arm 1 5 kg
Flamer Right Arm 1 150 kg
Battle Value: 355
