the shape of things to come

The IndustrialMech ejection seat is more complex and bulky, adding
weight and requiring extensive modifi cation to the typical IndustrialMech
cockpit—including the addition of canopy blasting bolts and the rearrangement
of the cockpit’s safety cage. Because such units aren’t sup-
posed to be in a position to ever require such a speedy bail-out system
(and perhaps because manufacturers fear lawsuits from ejection system
misuse), this equipment is fairly uncommon in IndustrialMechs.
Tech Base: Inner Sphere and Clan
Unit Restrictions: Only IndustrialMechs, Small Support Vehicles and Medium/Large Support Vehicles with a Airship, Fixed-Wing or VTOL motive
system may install ejection seats.
Game Rules: Ejection seats have no impact in Total Warfare. Rules for ejection will appear in Tactical Operations.
Construction Rules: BattleMechs, fi ghters and Small Craft incorporate ejection systems into their cockpit designs automatically, while DropShips
must use escape pods and lifeboats.
Units mounting ejection seats must mount the type intended for their design (Support Vehicle for Support Vehicles; IndustrialMech for
IndustrialMechs). The IndustrialMech ejection seat critical slot must be assigned to the unit’s head. Support Vehicle ejection seats take up no equipment
slots but must be noted on the unit’s record sheet.
Table Reference: Weapons and Equipment (Industrial, pp. 344–345)
If the cockpit is the brain of the modern vehicle, the engine is surely its
heart. With so many diff erent vehicles, ’Mech types and aerospace engines
out there today, it would take an entire volume to get into the fi ner details
about how the various engines work and what their nuances are. As that
is beyond the scope of this document, engineering students are directed
to their relevant coursework and the primer in the latest edition of Rayne’s
Power Sources. For the purposes of this briefing, engines are broadly
described as follows: military-standard fusion engines (including those
used in BattleMechs, Combat Vehicles and ProtoMechs), military-standard
combustion engines, aerospace engines, industrial fi ssion/fusion engines,
industrial internal combustion engines and Support Vehicle engines.
MILITARY-STANDARD FUSION ENGINES
Introduced: Circa 2021 (Western Alliance, Terra)
Massive technological advances (for the era) made it possible to deploy
relatively inexpensive fusion-based power supply systems small enough
for vehicular use in the early twenty-fi rst century. Naturally, one of the fi rst
applications of this technology appeared in military vehicles and aircraft.
In the millennium since that time, combat fusion engines have only grown
smaller, more effi cient, cleaner and more powerful—enabling the practical
development of the BattleMech as the titan of war it has become.
Still by no means cheap to the average consumer, battlefi eld-rated fusion
engines are manufactured across the Inner Sphere today by a relatively
small number of producers. They range in mass from the half-ton (and
incredibly rare) Omni-10 power plant to the truly massive (and rarely used)
LTV-400, which tips the scales at 52.5 tons.
In practical application, these engines have evolved as technologies
expanded, but they have proven most efficient when used to power
BattleMechs (or IndustrialMechs). Combat Vehicles, by comparison, have
to mount additional shielding and power conduits to handle and harness
a fusion power source, which tends to add signifi cant weight over and
above the traditional ’Mech versions.
With centuries of warfare, of course, the best technological enhancements
focused on these units, yielding to date three major improvements
to battlefi eld fusion: the extralight (XL) engine, the light fusion engine and
the ProtoMech engine.
Extralight (XL) engines were fi rst fi elded by the Terran Hegemony’s
armed forces in 2579, and achieved widespread use by the time of
Kerensky’s departure in 2784. The Succession Wars destroyed the last of
the XL engine plants by 2865, but the technology was recovered by the
Lyran Commonwealth in 3035 as one of many lost treasures of the fallen
Star League. These engines reduce their overall mass by roughly half, in
exchange for far greater bulk, thus allowing a given unit to carry additional
weapons, armor and other equipment. The Clans’ refi ned version matches
these weight savings, but at a signifi cant reduction in bulk that enhances
the engine’s overall survivability in combat.
EJECTION SEAT
ENGINES
Light engines were originally the brainchild of the Wolf’s Dragoons
mercenary command, as an eff ort to mimic the compact but lighter-weight
Clan XL. This engine, which balances the XL’s bulk and weight savings, tends
to weigh 25 percent less than an identically-rated military-standard fusion
engine, for the same volume as a comparable Clan-made reactor. Spies
from the Lyran Alliance reportedly stole this technology in the early 3060s,
and—despite the threat of the Dragoons’ ire—the armies loyal to then-
Archon Katherine Steiner-Davion began to fi eld light engines in 3062.
[Compact engines emerged in 3068, a year after this document was
compiled. Once again developed by Lyran engineers, this engine type was
apparently an alternative approach to the “smaller, harder-to-kill engine”
problem initially authorized by General Nondi Steiner during the FedCom
Civil War. The compact engine has half the physical size of the standard
fusion plant, but weighs fi fty percent more through the use of denser
shielding and a smaller, high-density fusion bottle. In the face of the
Blakist Jihad, General of the Armies Adam Steiner shared this technology
with ComStar and—through them—other nominal Lyran allies, including
the FedSuns and the Combine. Since then, sadly, Word of Blake Robes have
managed to capture and reverse-engineer the technology as well. –EB]
ProtoMech engines, the last of the major combat-rated fusion plants,
are new not so much because they are particularly innovative, but because
they were devised to maximize their power-to-weight ratios in the interests
of improving ProtoMech viability when they debuted in 3060. Where
standard combat-rated fusion engines are available only in power rating
increments of fi ve, ProtoMechs, with their smaller design mass increments,
can benefit better from engines custom-built to their unique needs.
Observers had identifi ed ProtoMech engines as light as 250 kilograms in
the fi eld, though the theoretically smallest possible chassis could have an
engine with a power rating of 4, weighing as little as 100 kilograms.
MILITARY-STANDARD COMBUSTION ENGINES
Introduced: Pre-spacefl ight
One of the most popular, inexpensive, tried-and-true of all engine technologies
has been the internal combustion engine (ICE for short). It therefore
comes as no surprise that while these power plants are impractical for
BattleMech use thanks to their greater size, they have nonetheless made
their presence known in the wider fi eld of combat vehicles, including
tanks, VTOLs and even conventional fi ghters. While ton-for-ton only half
as effi cient as a competing fusion engine, and reliant on a constant supply
of chemical fuels for long-term operation, modern combat ICEs—or
at least the parts to maintain them, which technically diff er little from
those of civilian manufacture—can be found on virtually every inhabited
world in the Inner Sphere. Advances in technology have not permitted the
development of extralight or light ICEs, but their ability to operate without
heat spikes and still use heavy energy weapons—after the proper installation
of power amplifi ers, of course—has made them a perfect match for
conventional combat vehicles.
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