BattleMech Technical Readout
Name/Model: Vigilant
Designer: Castro
Source(s): Custom Mordel.Net Units
Technology: Clan
Technology Rating: F
Tonnage: 100
Role: Sniper
Configuration: Biped BattleMech
Era/Year: Dark Age / 3150
Rules (Current): Standard
Rules (Era): Standard
Rules (Year): Standard
Total Cost: 15,736,000 C-Bills
Battle Value: 3,645
Chassis: Standard
Power Plant: 300 Fusion
Walking Speed: 32.4 kph
Maximum Speed: 54 kph [64.8 kph]
Jump Jets: Standard
Jump Capacity: 60 meters
Armor: Standard
Armament:
2 ER PPCs
4 Improved Heavy Medium Lasers
1 Laser Anti-Missile System
Manufacturer: Unknown
Primary Factory: Unknown
Communications: Unknown with Watchdog CEWS
Targeting & Tracking: Unknown with Advanced Targeting Computer
================================================================================================
Overview:
With the Dark Age burning in the past, and the time of the ilClan in fruition - Clan Sea Fox
began to dabble again with newer mech designs. While other Clans were developing
battlemech's to go along with newer technology - Clan Sea Fox took a step back, wanting a
mech that can go years without resupply and repair. With the popularity of the Regent from
Coventry Metal Works and Technicron Manufacturing, scientists began designs on what would
now be known as the Relentless, Vigilant, and Phobos.
The initial development for the Relentless, Vigilant, and Phobos were constantly marred by
politicking or normal Clan financial struggles, to the point where many thought the
battlemech's would never see the light of day. Tragically, for a fairly long amount of time,
all three designs languished in states of half-built, skeletal structures in battlemech
facilities, never really achieving the financing nor the backing to finish the project. Only
until Clan Sea Fox began establishing relationships with battlemech developers and factories
later on in the ilClan era, such as Coventry Metal works, and further realizing that a full
energy operated battlemech would be more cost efficient (and appealing) to the buyer - only
then did they begin to put their full effort into turning the three battlemech's from simple
concepts into realistic designs.
Much like the design philosophy of battlemech's such as the Regent, these battlemech
"borrowed" certain design elements from many other successful energy dependent mechs; for
example, borrowing designs from the Black Hawk, Supernova, and structural designs from mechs
like the Deimos. Thankfully the three battlemech's finally saw production in the late 3100's
to great success. These battlemechs had two basic philosophies of design and function:
primarily, to be a battlemech that had a full complement of energy weapons to theoretically
allow it to work indefinitely during a long campaign or mercenary contract without refit;
secondarily, to contain an advanced suite of electronics (with the minimum requirement being
an ECM and Active Probe) to allow it to act defensively as a command mech during battle.
While unofficial - each battlemech would also have two or more variants - each providing a
different role for the lance or star that it was assigned and bought for. Therefore, using
those as its principle design philosophies, the Relentless, Vigilant, and Phobos were
created.
While there was initial criticism that there was some initial criticism of its heavy number
of lasers taxing the reactor to some degree, either as a battle-line design for a Mercenary
company or Clan Star that required a mech that required little to no refit and wanted simple
and easy parts to be rugged and easy to maintain - its popularity rocketed these new mechs
to the top of sale charts.
Capabilities:
Weighing a massive 100 tons and sporting maximum levels of standard armour, the Vigilant
battlemech further supplements its survivability with a slightly larger cockpit space, which
allows Mechwarrior pilots to have more supplemental space to fill with survival gear,
rations, or weapons in case of long operations. However, most shocking to the design is the
absolute disuse of the stereotypical clan XL engine in favor of a heavier, but more
centralized, clan fusion engine. This allowed the initial build and repair cost of the
chassis to remain low, and, allow the durability and repairability to remain quite high - a
bonus with many who sought after a rugged Battlemech to purchase for longer campaigns or
contracts. This usage of cheap, yet common, parts gave the Vigilant its rugged and easy to
maintain status - as any damage to the mech was easily fixable, and its standard engine and
skeletal structure allowed it to take quite a lot of firepower before being marked as
crippled.
Along with the structure, engineers made it a point to provide the Vigilant with excellent,
if not superior, electronic warfare suites. Ergo, this variant of the Vigilant is hardwired
with the similar electronic and defense hardware to its brethren. In the right torso can be
found an Watchdog CEWS suite, which acts as both a Clan ECM suite and a Light Active Probe.
This easily allowed the Vigilant to mask its presence during operations or extended
missions, while also giving it a massive boost to sensor ranges as well as the ability to
communicate and command effectively from the battlefield. This base electronic and defensive
suite allowed the Vigilant to act essentially as a command unit to any lance or star - able
to defend itself, monitor the battlefield, and defend itself with its formidable weaponry.
Furthermore, Clan Engineers were able to fit a MASC just below the Watchdog CEWS Suite, to
supplement and boost the Vigilant's top speed whilst in combat. Two Jump Jets are placed in
the rear of the central torso, to provide the Vigilant a further boost of mobility, despite
only being able to lift the massive chassis 60 meters.
With the base skeletal structure, electronic suite, and defense electronics and equipment
all laid out, engineers now set out for their actual main goal: a mech that requires no
ammunition.
Taking inspiration from designs like the Supernova, Black Hawk, and other battlemech's that
had sole usage of energy weaponry - the Vigilant boasts an ER-PPC in each arm, both
supplemented by a PPC Capacitor providing a terrifying amount of long range firepower when
fully charged. A further four more Improved Heavy Medium Lasers are found on the bottom
section of each side torso, allowing for further damage at medium range. All of the energy
weapons are hardwired to the clan Targeting computer found in the left torso for further
accuracy, as it is typical to clan philosophy to design a mech whose systems work together
in harmony. In order to make sure the mech and pilot do not suffer through the massive
amounts of heat the Vigilant puts out with its energy armaments and Laser Anti-Missile
system - engineers were able to fit 23 Double Heat Sinks throughout the mech, which allowed
the mech to consistently fire most of its weapons without a worry of generating to much
excess amounts of heat.
Deployment:
While this battlemech should have seen deployment earlier in its development - its
production near the end of the Era of the Dark Age sadly left most of them in their
production facilities either half-built or collecting dust. Rather than forgotten, building
a new mech was seen as "not needed" by Clan Sea Fox, and they had not developed the
relationship they had now with many Battlemech manufacturers. However, with the new
prosperity found in the ilClan Era, as well as the Relentless, Phobos, and Vigilant
blueprint rediscovery, there is now new life brought into the battlemech, and Clan Sea Fox
has started to see its benefit (and money) selling it to many a buyer across the Inner
Sphere and Clan space.
Thankfully, with the Vigilant's high level of common parts and rugged status, coupled with
its ability to essentially never need refit on long campaigns or contracts, the Vigilant has
begun to collect battle scars instead of dust particles.
Variants:
The second variant of the Vigilant, much like the Phobos, is vastly different from its
original counterpart. Starting with its armour, it replaces the standard internal structure
with Endo-Steel, freeing up some additional tonnage. The engine is also gutted completely -
controversially removing the standard engine and replacing it with a Clan XL engine. While
this does vastly increase the speed of the Vigilant by a large margin, but it cuts down on
its overall survivability and and repairability (whilst also increasing the cost) - which
led to lower sales initially then expected. Despite this initial hesitance, however, sales
for the Vigilant rose quite high after a short period of time after seeing the mech in
combat. The Vigilant 2 also retains, surprisingly, all of its electronic warfare and defense
capabilities; including the Watchdog CEWS suite, the Laser Anti-Missile System, and the
Targeting Computer.
The Vigilant's biggest departure is the its change to its weaponry. Its Improved Heavy
Medium Lasers in either side torso get upgraded to ER Large lasers, which provided a much
more stronger punch at a longer range than the original. Furthermore, whether because a joke
was made, or some form of hilarity needed to ensue - the ER PPC's and their capacitors were
replaced in either arm for no less then 14 ER Small Lasers - split evenly between the two
arms. While ironically, this generated similar heat and damage to the ER PPC, this "laser
fist" (as it was dubbed) was so taxing on the generator that pilots reported feeling a
feeling of ionization in their cockpit when firing either fist. Whether this was detrimental
to the pilot is yet to be determined - however, the effectiveness of so many ER Small lasers
at a relatively small to medium range cannot be understated - and due to the Vigilant 2's
increased mobility due to its engine - no mech would dare stand within 120 meters of the ER
Small Lasers effective range for fear of being absolutely shredded by sheer force of the
bombardment.
================================================================================================
Equipment Mass
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internal Structure: Standard 10.00
Engine: 300 Fusion 19.00
Walking MP: 3
Running MP: 5 [6]
Jumping MP: 2
Heat Sinks (Double): 23 [46] 13.00
Gyro: Standard 3.00
Cockpit: Standard 3.00
Armor Factor: 307 19.50
Type: Standard
Internal Armor
Structure Value
Head: 3 9
Center Torso: 31 50
Center Torso (rear): 12
R/L Torso: 21 34
R/L Torso (rear): 8
R/L Arm: 17 34
R/L Leg: 21 42
================================================================================================
Weapons and Ammo Location Critical Tonnage
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Laser Anti-Missile System H 1 1.00
2 Jump Jets CT 2 4.00
2 Improved Heavy Medium Lasers RT 4 2.00
MASC RT 4 4.00
Watchdog CEWS RT 2 1.50
2 Improved Heavy Medium Lasers LT 4 2.00
Targeting Computer LT 4 4.00
ER PPC w/ Capacitor RA 3 7.00
ER PPC w/ Capacitor LA 3 7.00
================================================================================================
Alpha Strike Statistics
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Point Value (PV): 60
TP: BM, SZ: 4, TMM: 1, MV: 8"/4"j
Damage: (S) 5 / (M) 5 / (L) 3, OV: 2
Armor (A): 10, Structure (S): 8
Specials: AMS, CASE, ECM, JMPW1, LPRB, RCN, WAT
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