Surt

Ferrite:	26000 On Sale! 21840
Bioptics:	20000 On Sale! 16800
Crystal:	470 On Sale! 394

As the upsurge in bandit attacks starting in late 3342 began to take a heavier than usual toll on manufacturing plants all over the Galaxy, the business communities started clamoring for increased protection.

What they wanted and what was available were not the same thing however. The militaries of both the major and minor powers were stretched thin, and when they could be spared for garrison duties around some plants, those were only the biggest and deemed most critical (or as those who did not get protection muttered; The plants belonging to those who had most political clout). Another possibility was hiring Mercenaries. But most Mercenaries belonged to some clan, and hiring a full clan for standby protection would cut deeply into the profit margin, and the cost could well wipe out the smaller manufacturers. Which left the third option: Getting an affordable and intimidating defence force of their own.

In the Sengakuji Reaches the smaller business owners turned toward the Watanabe Advanced Technical Construction Holding (W.A.T.C.H.) for succor. They wanted affordable, big Mechs. Preferably capable of taking out several opponents in one shot, and having the staying power to be the last Mech standing in an armed conflict.

This was a tall order, and as usual the W.A.T.C.H. asked for input from their employees. One of the older techs, a battlescarred woman by the name of Toshiko Amura, suggested they make the biggest Mech ever.

Her proposal outlined several ways to sidestep the inherent problems when it came to ultraheavy Mechs, and she was rewarded by being made leader of the project group who were tasked with building a prototype.

Several months later, the first prototype was ready, but in a daring raid some unknown bandits made their way into the plant, and got away with the prototype. The fighting did trash the computers and started a huge fire. W.A.T.C.H. was eventually able to replicate much of the work, but many in the design team was injured, dead or missing. Among those missing and presumed incinerated in the fire was the design chief herself. W.A.T.C.H. restarted the project at a more secure location, but projected date of the first Mech was now in the early `50s

What was unknown was that the design chief in reality was none other than the Toshiko who had in the end of the last century used the computer entity known as AM in a bid for the Shogunate. How she survived the destruction of her Mech in the battle of the marionettes and got away from the battlefield will probably never be known, but in the decades since her defeat she managed to gather some forces and some production bases out in the periphery. She and her cohorts made their way to one of them to build a new army who would get her the throne.

But a few months later, after the first dozen or so Mechs had been built, the plant was discovered by a team of legendary pilots Alpha Corp assembled to promote their Mechs.

This legendary team, consisting of Boreas (Stuart Myshrall, Shawn Wretham and Jason Pedracini), Pike (Kenneth Hicks and Gary Muenzel) and Charon (Chris Zimmer, Dexter Berry and Claude Poirier) was discovered as they neared the plant. When Toshiko`s forces attacked them, they responded in kind. The fight took a while to resolve, but Toshiko saw the writing on the wall and made her escape before her forces were fully defeated.

Alpha Corps was notified of the incident, and their tech people were so impressed by the design that a crash program was launched to mass produce the Mech as soon as possible.

They decided to name the Mech Surt after an ancient legend of a fire giant.

One can see the lineage from the W.A.T.C.H. clearest in the Cockpit design. Like in the Cyclops it has one big "eye", which lets those using Eyeball Mark One get a wider view of the surrounding area and highlight fragile objects in the vicinity one better not step on.

Some Mech manufacturers try to make the Mechs blend in to the surrounding terrain by color schemes or camouflage patterns. Others try for a menacing color scheme. Alpha Corp went another way. The main color on the Surt is Pink. While it makes it stand out against almost every background, this also make it look softer and less threatening. Good for P.R. when you have the Mech on guard or on march trough friendly territory, and might make an opponent underestimate it as well.

The biggest problem when it comes to the heaviest Mechs is the fact that the weight put immense stress on the legs and the ground pressure might make the Mechs sink into all but the firmest ground. The Surt addresses these difficulties in several ways. Firstly, the leg joints are made by magnetic gimbals and uses some of the Technology found in the Actuator Decoupler module. Additional pneumatic muscles driven by steam from the engine gives additional strength. The ground pressure problem is partially solved by wide feet, reducing the pressure pr square inch to what an 85 tonner normally have, and it also have some jet nozzles, also fueled by steam from the engines on its shoulders. These nozzles can be dialed up quite a bit, and at maximum output (using pure plasma) they allow the Mech to make jumps of up to 60 meters. At normal operating power they will reduce the Mechs effective weight by 20 tons, and as such further reduce wear on the legs.

These motive enhancements have an additional benefit as well. The heat sent through the conduits makes the Mech much less susceptible to cold based attacks, and fully developed it will reduce such attacks by an estimated two fifths. The drawbacks is that the Mech needs to cool for a while before techs can approach it for maintenance or field repairs, and if the plasma burners are used, they will turn most surrounding flammable material into a raging fire.

To provide the power the Mech needs the designer placed four Storm Cell power plants in it, two near the shoulders and two near the hips. This allowed plenty of power for both the weapons and an full array of overload capacitors (1.5x, 1.6x, 2x, and 3x) although the unaugmented odds of them discarding is somewhat low. Further use of the plasma reserves will eventually nearly double the effect of fire weaponry. To increase the mobility, there is also room for Connection of up to seven engine modules.

The AI used is the Bathago IV. While it is not of the highest order when it comes to acquiring targets, it is quite capable of directing shots in a way that if a hits occur the prime targets Close linemates will share the damage half of the time. To further improve targeting it will eventually have room for up to seven additional modules.

Defensively the Mech is quite effective. The jet nozzles is tied into the threat Analyzer and can nudge the Mech sideways enough to avoid some incoming direct fire. But when it gets some extra milliseconds to analyze fire patterns, it will reduce secondary damage by more than a quarter by positioning itself in a way that reduces the target area. The evasiveness can be further improved by adding up to six additional Chassis Modules.

While it do have some general shielding, that is not enough to fully deflect any but the weaker weapons. But there is room to install up to five Shield modules as well.