Claymore

“You made it this far grunt, now we’ll finally give you a mech that can take on anything! … Well as long as you stay away from anything bigger then you I think you should be fine.”

- A Grand Alliance Sergeant telling a lowly corporal what to expect in battle.

Classification: Grand Alliance Heavy multi-purpose mech

Height: 22 meter

Max flight speed: Mach 35

Armour: Duratanium 10 cm thick

Shielding: Heavy magnetic energy shield

Reactors: 1 x Anti-matter, 5 x Cold fusion

Main armament

1 x Heavy plasma assault rifle/ Heavy induction plasma cannon

1 x Multi-purpose defender shield (1 x 60 mm chain gun, 3 x grenade launcher, 1 x chainsaw)

1 x rail gun/ magnetic accelerated plasma cannon

Secondary

Many x micro-missile pod (Mounted on rear booster, shoulders, neck mount, defender shield and calves)

2 x multi-tube variable payload weapon pods (mounted on shoulders)

2 x medium laser cannon (mounted on neck mount)

Close in

2 x cold steel knives (mounted in forearms)

2 x beam sabre/ beam whip

2 x submachine gun

The Claymore class mech is the workhorse mech for the Grand Alliance forces. It mounts a vast selection of weapon and equipment, which allows it to engage whatever forces the Grand Alliance, may come across. The base body of the Claymore is big enough to house massive anti-matter as well as cold fusion generators; this provides enough power to feed all of the Claymore’s weapons and systems. If need be the anti-matter reactor can be omitted (for dimensions which can’t easily produce anti-matter) for 4 extra cold fusion reactors though this arrangement will take up valuable room for micro-missiles and upset the balance. The speed and manuverability is surprisingly high for a mecha of this size and a skilled pilot in a Claymore can match most lighter mechs turn for turn. Armour wise the Claymore could take a heavy beating and even with out energy shields it could just barley survive a direct hit by a cap ships main gun. The only weakness of the Claymore if there is one is that it lacks any heavy specialization in any one area. Though it has no glaring weaknesses it lacks any real strength either.

The main plasma rifle was designed to fulfil 3 main criteria: It could destroy a medium mech in one shot, it could fire rapid enough to be used for heavy suppressive fire, and it could damage a capital ship if need be. Grand Alliance scientist used every technique of plasma manipulation to reach the desired criteria set out for them. The resulting weapon can fire a rapid 3 shot a second and each shot is powerful enough to rip apart a medium class mecha. A 2 second burst will take down most heavy mecha. When need be the rifle can expand its magnetic rails and act as a small induction plasma cannon. This cannon needs five seconds to gather energy; it will then release a blast capable of sinking a small capital ship. Unfortunately it requires 3 seconds to cool down the rails and another 5 to charge up again. This was fine with most commanders as the Claymore would have an impressive pre-emptive strike capability and could then engage the enemy mecha, which remained.

The defender shield was made to deal with tricky enemies who used heavy energy suppressing shields. The 60 mm chain gun was a reliable tank-busting weapon, while the grenade launcher could provide some heavier punch if need be. Micro-missile pods were attached on the shield and added to the high number of missiles the Claymore could carry. Finally the defender shield had a retractable chain saw for close in anti-armour work. If need be the defender shield could also function decently as a shield.

In the chest of the Claymore was a heavy rail gun/ energy cannon. Due to the already cramped space of the interior only 5 rounds for the rail gun were carried. These rounds were therefore crafted to be one-shot one-kill weapons for heavy mecha. The energy cannon had a rather large range but lacked the punch of the induction plasma cannon (slightly more powerful then a rifle shot but not capital ship destroying). It did however have a faster cool off and charging time (2 second to cool down, 1 second to charge) and was therefore preferred as a sniper weapon.

The secondary armaments were mostly a multitude of micro-missile. Thought they lacked the range of other missiles they were more numerous and therefore could be used to saturate an area, intercept incoming missiles, or act as distraction for more heavier opponents. Backing the missiles up was an equally as versatile weapon pod. Functionally they were oversized grenade launchers but could be a multitude of warheads. These ranged from smoke and flash bang rounds to anti-mecha rounds. Due to this versatile load out a Claymore would always have a surprise up its sleeve for an unsuspecting foe.

In a close in fight the Claymore had an assortment of weapons it could use. It’s main melee weapon other then its chainsaw was a beam sabre/ beam whip. The easy transition from these two modes could allow for the Claymore to be decent at hand-to-hand combat. The whip was used for long-range melee while the sabre was used for close in work. For real close in engagements a pair of steel knives were stored in the forearms. When brought to bear they were not the strongest weapons to use but were quick and accurate. Lastly if the 2 main weapon systems were disabled a pair of submachine guns could be deployed. Stored in the back they could be brought to bear quickly, though they lacked any real punch.

Many man-hours were spent making the Claymore an effective main battle mech. It was versatile, easy to produce, and had some heavy punch if need be. The Claymore would continue to serve as the Grand Alliance standard battle mech even as project Ares, Checkmate and Gaia churned out advance mechs of their own.