Tick

Ferrite:	3300
Bioptics:	2050
Niodes:	100

The esteemed Brotherhood of San Lorenzo have always been a staunch defender of the society of Cogwerk planets.

When the Technomancers forces arrived, they were as usual in the frontline, doing their very best to stem the tide and rolling it back. In the process of doing so, they took severe losses, but also had several successes, among them the capture of several more or less intact Mechs having some of the Technomancers newest inventions.

Med Bot will repair damage to this mech.

If this mech is at full health, Med-Bot will repair the mech next to it.

These captured mechs were handed over to the technical branch of the order, and soon the plans for incorporating these inventions began to take form.

While other manufacturers made modules to fit onto existing models, the Brotherhood technicians had a more ambitious goal; to make a fresh model from scratch, using a blend of old and new technologies to make a truly revolutionary design.

One of the biggest problems facing Commanders in the furious battles when Mechs clash have always been to keep their Mechs operational longer than the opponents. The introduction of the hives of Auto-Repair nanites had helped, but these could only keep the Mech they were installed on working. With the introduction of the Med-Bot the possibility of having a dedicated repair team in the frontlines changed from suicidal to possible.

Discussions of what tonnage it was to be incorporated in was fierce. Some wanted it in a BFM to keep it as tough as possible, other wanted to have it in a lighter Mech to hold the cost down. In the end they landed on a low slung 65 ton Mech.

Thus were the plans for the Tick started.

Somehow resembling the successful Craftsmen Mechs, the Tick is a bigger and taller quad Mech, having a seemingly slow and measured gait.

Despite its deceptively slow gait, it is actually the fastest Mech of its tonnage class. Fully developed, -at 12 over combat standard it is a hair faster than even the venerable Smilidon . To keep the speed high as it scurries among its wounded brethren, it have also been given room for up to five additional Engine modules as it is brought to its full potential.

To fuel this speed, and provide the energy needed for the other modules, it was given a slightly compacted Tuxon fusion plant, originally made for the 80 ton Nakshi Mech. The output is almost the same, but the room demanded for it is one of the reasons for the somewhat high main body.

The Tick is not an agile Mech in itself, so the engineers decreed it would need plenty of modules to dodge incoming fire. Deciding to give it the same amount of modules as the slower Megazome, the promise of room for up to six Chassis Modules for a fully developed Tick should answer the critics concern of it being a sitting target.

At the heart of the Tick, instead of standard Auto-Repair nanobot hives, it will eventually have room for almost two dozen Med-Bots to keep its linemates operational. These Med-Bots will probably be kept quite busy as the Tick runs back and forth, making critical emergency repairs to keep its linemates in the fight for a few additional exchanges of fire.

To keep the Tick operational for as long as possible, the engineers gave it the perhaps the best Shield package for a heavy Mechs ever made. Fully developed it have a general shielding capable of shrugging of an unaugmented hit from a Veridan Beam (34 damage). It will also reduce all incoming direct fire by approximately a seventh. The shielding module will also counteract secondary hits. Those originating from its linemates will be lessened by a seventh to two Fifths, while its ability to drop to the ground should let around two Thirds of damage originating in the previous line to pass harmlessly over it. As the Tick comes fully operational, it will also have room for an impressive seven Shield modules, easily more than any other heavy Mech models so far produced.

The Tick`s most critical components have also been given some redundancy and emergency bypass routes. This is estimated to keep the Mech operational even after suffering what should have been a mission-kill, -at least once in a while.

As a last resort, it have also been given a Jiu-Jitsu module that unerringly sends a retaliatory strike back to its attacker consisting of better than a third of the damage suffered.

But all of these inventions do come at a price. The cramped carapace simply do not have room for as much weaponry as its compatriots, the Smilidon and the Megazome.

The targeting computer is based on the Black Box known from the Megazome. While its virus package have been improved to reduce an opponents firing speed significantly, the better than even odds of totally freezing an opponent in its tracks is a new twist most pilots will heartily approve of. The Black Box will eventually have room for two supporting modules modules.