BattleMech Technical Readout
Name/Model: Medusa MDS-5T0N3
Designer: ArcticDesigns53
Source(s): Custom Mordel.Net Units
Technology: Inner Sphere (Mixed)
Technology Rating: F
Tonnage: 85
Role: Juggernaut
Configuration: Biped BattleMech
Era/Year: Dark Age / 3119
Rules (Current): Experimental
Rules (Era): Experimental
Rules (Year): Unavailable
Total Cost: 18,942,150 C-Bills
Battle Value: 2,679
Chassis: Medusa Structure 5
Power Plant: Snow Raven 255 XL
Walking Speed: 32.4 kph
Maximum Speed: 54 kph
Jump Jets: None
Jump Capacity: None
Armor: Nemean MK II Ballistic-Reinforced
Armament:
4 Stonemaker Type 4 Plasma Rifles
2 Raven Standard Medium Pulse Lasers (C)
2 Defiance B3M Medium Lasers
2 Raven Alliance ER Small Lasers (C)
Manufacturer: Sfyri Armaments Incorporated
Primary Factory: Plant Olympus
Communications: Ajax Broadcasting Advanced Extended
Targeting & Tracking: "Hades" CT-44
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Overview:
The Medusa was created with one goal in mind: to overwhelm the enemy's heat dissipation
system. They originally planned to use Hardened armor, but found that it would be much too
difficult to produce, and much to expensive to produce themselves. They instead went with
Ballistic Reinforced Armor combined with a Blue Shield system, granting them almost the same
protection. So they continued to work on the design, until they ran into a bottleneck: all
of their inner sphere technology was too bulky to make the mech effective, even after
increasing the mech's weight by 20 tons. So, they went looking for a supplier of clan level
technology. Sfyri's own government, the Federated Suns, did not have the technology that
Sfyri needed. Clan Seafox swiftly offered the required tech, but the terms and conditions
were simply unacceptably predatory. So they turned to the only power they thought might be
able to help: The Raven Alliance. They quickly entered into talks to gain the technology
they needed. Liking the design, but disliking the Blue shield system, the Raven's offered to
get them their supplies of hardened armor if they would use it to create a variant of the
Medusa, and that they would get the entire first production run of.
The Medusa is an intimidating physical design. It's torso is very similar to that of a
Sagittaire, but the designers wove the Blue Shield System into the chassis in such a way
that it appears to have snakes, much like that of the mech's namesake. It's arms are like
that of a Penetrator, with the medium laser and medium pulse lasers slung under the Plasma
Rifles. The legs of the mech are a mix of Penetrator and Flashman.
Capabilities:
The Medusa's was designed around it's main weapon, the Plasma Rifles. The goal was to turn
enemies into stationary rocks, due to the heat overload inflicted upon them, hence the name
of Medusa. They placed 4 Plasma Rifles into the design, one of each arm and one on each of
the mech's shoulders. They chose to make the arms flippable because they wanted a 360 degree
firing arc for the weapons. They also originally planned to place shoulder turrets on the
mech, but were unable to do it due to lack of space internally for the turret mechanism.
They included a medium laser and clan medium pulse lasers under each arm as a backup weapon,
but because they are mounted directly on the plasma rifles, their cooling jackets quickly
detiorate, making them run much hotter than usual. The armaments were rounded out by a pair
of rear mounted Clan ER Small Lasers to increase the rear facing firepower of the mech. One
of the more interesting inclusions on the mech is the same Targeting and Tracking system
that is available to the Stalker, which handles best significantly better than equivalent
designs, allowing the hot running mechs to run ever so slightly cooler.
The offensive systems are only half the story however, as the mech's renowned defensive
systems are a major part of its success. The Ballistic Reinforced armor halves the incoming
damage of autocannons and missiles attacks, essentially neutering mechs like the King Crab
and Archer, while the Blue Shield Particle Field Disruptor halves the incoming damage of
PPCs, making one of the most powerful weapon families in the Inner Sphere an afterthought.
However, Lasers continue to be as deadly as ever to the Medusa, and though it has thick
armor playing, it's main defence is the heat it can inflict on its rivals using the Plasma
Rifles, forcing hot running energy mechs to limit their fire.
Lastly, the mech was designed to help coordinate with other units, with advanced
communications equipment found in mechs such as the archer.
Deployment:
Unfortunately for Sfyri Armaments, the first test of the prototype Medusa happened two days
after construction was finished on it. It had just finished it's shakedown tests when
pirates where detected in system, demanding that Sfyri turn over all mechs in their position
or risk their factory being destroyed. They refused, and instead deployed the Medusa and
their two lances of their security forces to defend the volcanic facilities. The Medusa test
pilot, one retired AFFS Major Jacob Keit, took command of the defense of the facility. He
placed his mech in an area with a number of lava flows, and had the rest of his mechs hide
in ambush. When the company of pirate mechs appeared, they only saw a new mech, one with an
intimidating visage, and bristling with armaments. They advanced slowly, expecting a trap.
They fired salvos of missiles and autocannon shells, as well as PPc fire. They were shocked
when they did very little damage to the Medusa's armor. When Major Keith returned fire, he
did heavy damage and overheated the mechs from range, and once a number of them were
shutdown due to the heat, the ambush was launched, with the two lances of battlemechs
closing on the rear of the pirate mechs 's formation, focusing fire on the shutdown mechs,
and when possible, pushing pirates into the lava flows. The quickly reducing pirates pushed
towards the Medusa, trying to take it down to allow them a clear line of escape. Though
pressed hard, Major Keith's Battlemech did not fall, and he had a part in almost every kill
that occured, usually shutting down a mech before the security forces eliminated it. Even
still, he managed to single handedly eliminate an entire lance of the enemy mechs. Only 3
pirates survived to surrender. Sadly, though his Medusa was still standing at the end of the
battle, Major Jacob Keith would die in his cockpit of overheating, as his life support
system was hit during the fighting. His Medusa was retired to perfect condition and is now
preserved in the Sfyri head office as a memorial.
Variants:
After completing the initial production run of the Medusa, Sfyri Armaments worked with Raven
Alliance Scientists to create the MDS-5TON3-H, which used hardened armor, stripped out the
Blue Shield, and introduced the Shoulder Turrets to the design. Everything else remained the
same, except that the shoulder mounted Plasma Rifles and rear mounted ER Small laser were
mounted in the turret.
After complaints about the lack of ammunition for the launchers, Sfyri Armaments created the
MDS-5T0N3-E, which installed additional ammunition storage by stripping out the Medium Pulse
Lasers.
The MDS-6TON3 followed in the -H's footsteps by using shoulder turrets, but also replaced
the shoulder mounted Plasma Rifles with clan Plasma Cannons. In order to make up for the
loss of direct damage, they stripped out the Medium Pulse Lasers for Clan Er Large Lasers.
This design also lost the Er Small Lasers. There was also an MDS-6TON3-H which is identical,
but uses Hardened Armor.
The MDS-7T0N3-H is unique in the Medusa line in that it doesn't have a corresponding variant
without the -H moniker. It's sister variant was scrapped after the main armaments, the TSEMP
Cannon, proved to interfere with the workings of the Ballistic Reinforced Armor and the Blue
Shield system. So it was scrapped, but the -H continued forward, as it was required by
contract. When the first batch was completed, Sfyri was faced with possible bankruptcy
because they had set up production lines expecting the 7TON3 would be a success, but when
that failed to materialize, they realized they'd be in immense financial debt, and liable to
being dissolved. The Raven's, not wanting to lose a valuable partner, allowed them to sell
half of the first production run of the MDS-7TON3-H, so long as the Raven's received a 15%
kickback from the sales and the full promised amount of battlemechs later down the road. The
MDS-7T0N3-H returns to the use of Medium Pulse lasers, but rips out the shoulder mounted
Plasma rifles in favor of a pair of the TSEMP cannons. They also have shoulder mounted
turrets. While undergunned compared to other variants, the TSEMP Cannons can wreak havoc on
a mech's systems, and possible shutdown a mech in a single shot.
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Equipment Mass
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Internal Structure: Standard 8.50
Engine: 255 XL (C) 6.50
Walking MP: 3
Running MP: 5
Jumping MP: 0
Heat Sinks (Double): 16 [32] (C) 6.00
Gyro: Standard 3.00
Cockpit: Standard 3.00
Armor Factor: 240 20.00
Type: Ballistic-Reinforced
Internal Armor
Structure Value
Head: 3 9
Center Torso: 27 33
Center Torso (rear): 8
R/L Torso: 18 29
R/L Torso (rear): 7
R/L Arm: 14 28
R/L Leg: 18 31
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Weapons and Ammo Location Critical Tonnage
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ER Small Laser (C) RT (R) 1 0.50
Plasma Rifle RT 2 6.00
Plasma Rifle (Ammo 20) RT 2 2.00
ER Small Laser (C) LT (R) 1 0.50
Plasma Rifle LT 2 6.00
Plasma Rifle (Ammo 20) LT 2 2.00
Medium Laser RA 1 1.00
Medium Pulse Laser (C) RA 1 2.00
Plasma Rifle RA 2 6.00
Blue Shield PFD * 7 3.00
Medium Laser LA 1 1.00
Medium Pulse Laser (C) LA 1 2.00
Plasma Rifle LA 2 6.00
* Blue Shield PFD occupies 1 critical slot in each location except the Head
================================================================================================
Alpha Strike Statistics
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Point Value (PV): 46
TP: BM, SZ: 4, TMM: 1, MV: 6"
Damage: (S) 5 / (M) 5 / (L) 0, OV: 2
Armor (A): 8, Structure (S): 5
Specials: BRA, ENE, HT2/2/-, REAR1/1/-
Distribution
Name/Model: Medusa MDS-5T0N3
Technology: Inner Sphere (Mixed)
Tonnage: 85
Configuration: Biped BattleMech
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Left ArmHeadRight Arm
1. Shoulder 1. Life Support 1. Shoulder
2. Upper Arm Actuator 2. Sensors 2. Upper Arm Actuator
3. Blue Shield PFD 3. Cockpit 3. Blue Shield PFD
4.Plasma Rifle 4. Ballistic-Reinforced 4.Plasma Rifle
5.Plasma Rifle 5. Sensors 5.Plasma Rifle
6. Medium Pulse Laser (C) 6. Life Support 6. Medium Pulse Laser (C)
1. Medium Laser 1. Medium Laser
2.Double Heat Sink (C) 2.Double Heat Sink (C)
3.Double Heat Sink (C) 3.Double Heat Sink (C)
4. Ballistic-Reinforced 4. Ballistic-Reinforced
5. Ballistic-Reinforced 5. Ballistic-Reinforced
6. Ballistic-Reinforced 6. Ballistic-Reinforced
Left TorsoCenter TorsoRight Torso
1. XL Engine (C) 1. XL Engine (C) 1. XL Engine (C)
2. XL Engine (C) 2. XL Engine (C) 2. XL Engine (C)
3. Blue Shield PFD 3. XL Engine (C) 3. Blue Shield PFD
4.Plasma Rifle 4. Gyro 4.Plasma Rifle
5.Plasma Rifle 5. Gyro 5.Plasma Rifle
6. Plasma Rifle (Ammo 10) 6. Gyro 6. Plasma Rifle (Ammo 10)
1. Plasma Rifle (Ammo 10) 1. Gyro 1. Plasma Rifle (Ammo 10)
2.Double Heat Sink (C) 2. XL Engine (C) 2.Double Heat Sink (C)
3.Double Heat Sink (C) 3. XL Engine (C) 3.Double Heat Sink (C)
4.Double Heat Sink (C) 4. XL Engine (C) 4.Double Heat Sink (C)
5.Double Heat Sink (C) 5. Blue Shield PFD 5.Double Heat Sink (C)
6. ER Small Laser (C) (R) 6. Ballistic-Reinforced 6. ER Small Laser (C) (R)
Left LegRight Leg
1. Hip 1. Hip
2. Upper Leg Actuator 2. Upper Leg Actuator
3. Lower Leg Actuator 3. Lower Leg Actuator
4. Foot Actuator 4. Foot Actuator
5. Blue Shield PFD 5. Blue Shield PFD
6. Ballistic-Reinforced 6. Ballistic-Reinforced
Plasma Rifle 4. Ballistic-Reinforced 4.
Plasma Rifle 5. Sensors 5.
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