GHI Mark I Snow Crab

Mass: 70 tons

Tech Base: Mixed

Chassis Config: Biped

Production Year: Unknown (3130)

Dry Cost: 17,793,107 C-Bills

Total Cost: 17,913,107 C-Bills

Battle Value: 2,271

Chassis: Unknown Standard

Power Plant: Unknown 350 Fusion XL Engine

Walking Speed: 54.0 km/h

Maximum Speed: 86.4 km/h

Armor: Unknown Heavy Ferro-Fibrous

Armament:

2 Crossbow (CL) LRM-15s

2 “Tronel” (IS) Large Pulse Lasers

1 C3 Boosted Computer (Slave)

Manufacturer: Unknown

Primary Factory: Unknown

Communications System: Unknown linked to a C3 Boosted Slave.

Targeting and Tracking System: Unknown linked to a C3 Boosted Slave.

Record sheets (once available)

MTF files (once available)

Overview:

“The Snow Crab first showed up during the fight on Artru as a support ‘Mech for the Word of Blake units. We got reports of them showing up on Taurus as well during attacks there, but not in large numbers like they did here. The Raven Alliance has thrown a bone in the gears here saying whoever is raiding them also has had a few them show up. This means someone in the Periphery is building those things and providing the Blakists and renegade Clanners with them.

70 tons “crab” ‘Mech, it has this weird big glowing eye that some of those machines seem to have, decently scary looking. It is also fairly quick and agile and the arms can swing around quite a bit. The skin is tough on top of it, which makes it an odd heavy ‘mech.”

Snow Crab Capabilities:

“Same kind of unusual heavy-ferro alloy on this one than on the smaller Spider crab. After further analysis, it is basically Clan ferro-fibrous, just made on the really cheap. Like, bargain basement, done by people without a degree cheap. 10 tons of the stuff does give those things a pretty tough hide though.

Engine is similar, I would say. The Snow Crab uses a cheap knock-off of a Clan designed XL engine, taking as much room as an Inner Sphere one. But really, made on the cheap. This thing wouldn’t last a decade probably, so it is made to be disposable. Rated at 350, this thing can go about 86kmph in a straight line, which is still decently fast on a 70 ton ‘Mech. Each side torso has a built-in CASE II feature, which is a bit surprising because I wasn’t expecting them to care about their pilots.

Weird cockpit module tied to a C3 boosted slave this time around, coded by Blake and Founder knows who. The assembly is armored to make sure it can tank internal hits, which I think is a smart move, overall.

For weapons, the main model of the Snow Crab we saw carried a pair of 15-rack LRMs in the forearms, with enough ammo to keep a continuous bombardment. Those are the good Clan kind, too, surprisingly. The second model we saw replaced the 15-racks with big crab claws.

The shoulders pack large pulse lasers, but those are the cheap Inner Sphere-kind, and again, they are not built to standard. They do give you decent punch once you get in your face. The one with claws also had a ER Medium Laser under the big glowy eye in the middle.”

Deployment:

“We saw those generally acting as bodyguards to some command units from the Word of Blake, and the Snow Ravens have been saying the same on their end. Some of the other odd ‘Mechs had Snow Crabs surrounding them, and those things threw themselves at you to prevent their commander being captured. Formations of them usually featured a combination of the claw model and the LRM model.

Getting into physical attack range is common for those things, using their weight to bully smaller ‘Mechs into submission. Since none of the weapons they mount have minimum range, it was to be expected on a faster than average heavy ‘mech. This also leads a few of these to get into ambushes when combined with ‘Mechs with ECM suites. A group of Highwaymen were caught by these things in a snowy pass, and the only guy to make it out alive was because his Clint was ignored as it jumped away.”

Variants:

“Clan Snow Raven has given us some details on a version packing Streak SRM6 in the arm missile mounts, along with ER Small Lasers on coaxial. Not sure if that one is standard or not.

One Snow Crab version showed up with Clan Large Pulse Lasers in the shoulders instead, apparently. Again, not sure if it was standard, and the thing was completely slagged by the time the Fronc Marshall got to it.

Snow Crabs with Mech Mortars. What the heck was that about. One of them had Mech mortars in the shoulders and pulse lasers in the arms. Another thing I saw guncam of, but this one ran off.”

Notable ‘Mechs & MechWarriors:

“Star Captain Shiro of Clan Snow Raven face 3 of these things in an Iron Cheetah. The rest of his Star supported him, but he brought all 3 down with clean shots which damaged the center torso, destroying the C3 system, which appeared to crippled the ‘Mechs.

The Highwaymen managed to capture one almost pristine, the engine still running but not moving at all. It was also the one where we managed to pull the pilot out, well, alive. In a manner of speaking. We’ll get into the autopsy of that at some point.”

Snow Crab Additional:

Quirks:

* Hyper Extending Actuators

====================================================================

Equipment Type Rating Mass

——————————————————————————–

Internal Structure: Standard 107 points 7.00

Engine: XL Engine 350 15.00

Walking MP: 5

Running MP: 8

Jumping MP: 0

Heat Sinks: (CL) Double Heat Sink 14(28) 4.00

Gyro: 0.00

Cockpit: Interface 4.00

Actuators: L: SH+UA+LA+H R: SH+UA+LA+H

Armor: Heavy Ferro-Fibrous AV – 198 10.00

Armor Locations: 3 CT, 4 LT, 3 RT, 4 LA, 3 RA, 2 LL, 2 RL

CASE II Locations: 1 LT, 1 RT 1.00

Internal Armor

Structure Factor

Head 3 9

Center Torso 22 31

Center Torso (rear) 8

L/R Torso 15 22

Torso (rear) Left / Right 8

L/R Arm 11 20

Leg Left / Right 15 25

====================================================================

Equipment Location Heat Critical Mass

——————————————————————————–

(A) C3 Boosted Computer (Slave) CT 0 2 4.00

(IS) Large Pulse Laser RT 10 2 7.00

(IS) Large Pulse Laser LT 10 2 7.00

(CL) LRM-15 RA 5 2 3.50

(CL) LRM-15 LA 5 2 3.50

@LRM-15 (16) RT – 2 2.00

@LRM-15 (16) LT – 2 2.00

Free Critical Slots: 7

BattleForce Statistics (Snow Crab Mark I)

MV S (+0) M (+2) L (+4) E (+6) Wt. Ov Armor: 7 Points: 23

5 4 4 2 0 3 0 Structure: 3

Special Abilities: C3BSS, CASEII, SRCH, ES, SEAL, SOA, LRM 2/2/2, IF 2