the shape of things to come

Distinguished members of the media, my name is Professor
Dietrich Mathers and I’ve been asked to provide you an overview
of BattleMechs. As I understand, a number of your editors
requested this lecture because Kaumberg’s ‘net has gotten
rather toasty towards you. Apparently, legions of armchair
MechWarriors are waging a holy crusade to correct technical
inaccuracies in your reporting.
…I suspect I could have chosen a better phrase than “holy
crusade,” what with the Blakists’ current misbehavior…At any
rate, the more organized ’Mech-nuts’ petitions must have
hurt your ratings, else you wouldn’t be joining me here at the
Stuttgart School of Defense.
To the point, what I hope to achieve today is not to fully
illuminate you regarding all the mysteries of BattleMech
technology, but rather to explain enough so that when your
future reports next involve BattleMechs, you know to ask the
correct questions and get the facts. You should thus—theoretically—come
away from here knowing how to avoid being
fl amed by pimple-faced armchair MechWarriors.
So, this is my lesson plan for the day. First, I’m going to tell
you what a BattleMech is. Then I’m going to tell you about their
guts, starting at the bones and then covering major components.
Finally, I’m going to wrap it all up by explaining how the
whole thing gets brought to life. Are we ready? Good.
TERMINOLOGY
Now, before I describe the basics, allow me to explain my
terminology. First, when I say “BattleMech,” I’m referring to
BattleMechs and OmniMechs. If I have something to say about
Omnis alone, I will say “OmniMech.” But if I just say “’Mech,” I’m
referring to any type of ’Mech, including IndustrialMechs.
Also, I believe some of you got in trouble from the ’Mechheads
for taking your biological analogies to ’Mechs too literally.
Before I begin confusing you, I’m going to warn you right
now that while I will be using terms like “bones” and “joints”
and “muscles,” keep in mind I am talking about mechanical
systems. For example, the “bones” of a BattleMech’s chassis
are composite structural components that can endure meganewton
loads while supporting an exterior armor shell, diffusing
excess electrical currents from PPC strikes, carrying a
dense web of data and power lines, and anchoring myomer
bundles. As a result, they appear no more like human bones
than the wings of a large aircraft resemble a bird’s wings.
BATTLEMECHS: THE BASICS
You would have to be a blind, deaf, and dumb inhabitant
of a Deep Periphery lost colony to not know basically what
a BattleMech is. But just in case, a BattleMech is a giant, armored
robot toting huge guns, piloted by those modern
knights called MechWarriors.
That is a simplifi cation, of course. As many of you have
learned, no doubt, there is a little more to these machines
than that.
Your recent problems originate not only from people
shouting at you for technical errors, but also for violating
cultural taboos about the BattleMech. For example, in some
‘net halls, I would be wise to wear asbestos undies if I dared
to call those shining and magnifi cent titans of war something
so crass as “giant, armored robots toting huge guns.”
So, to strip away the cultural baggage that BattleMechs have
acquired over the past half-millennium, let me give you this
enhanced defi nition of the BattleMech:
A BattleMech is an armored combat vehicle.
That’s right. Don’t be fooled by the sculpted armor and
lifelike motions of its limbs. A BattleMech is just a tank on
legs. The arms are complicated turrets, but turrets nonetheless.
The legs are a complicated all-terrain propulsion system.
And a BattleMech’s guns and armor do not signifi cantly
diff er from those found on any other armored combat vehicles
in use today.
There are, of course, several subtle diff erences.
INTERNAL STRUCTURE
First and foremost, it is the articulated structure of the
legs that set ’Mechs (Battle- or otherwise) apart from other
vehicles. No other vehicle has articulated legs as capable as
those of a ’Mech.
Making these legs possible is a chassis, an internal structure
quite diff erent than those of other vehicles. There is an
obvious degree of articulation—joints—not found in the
rigid bodies of conventional vehicles. And when the fi rst
’Mech designers sought to harness myomers in the 24th
century to better animate the limbs of their IndustrialMechs,
they found the easiest approach was to mimic the layout of
humans and other advanced animals: an endoskeleton.
Having an endo-skeletal frame means that many of a
’Mech’s systems sit on the exterior of the frame rather than
being caged within a frame, roughly similar to the way your
skeleton serves as an internal support for muscles and organs.
As rigid and unyielding as BattleMech armor might
seem, few ’Mech designs use the armor to assist the internal
structure’s load-bearing duty. BattleMech armor is too thin
for its width and height to be anything but a wobbly sheet.
Wait, “wobbly” was another bad word choice, wasn’t it?
The Frame
So, let’s start talking about internal structure components
with the bones. A ’Mech typically only has about sixteen to
twenty-fi ve “bones.” This is partly because some structures
that might be assembled from a dozen or more bones in a
human, like the ribcage, are a one-piece cage in ’Mechs. In
other areas ’Mechs simply don’t need the complexity of the
human model, like the foot, where shock pads are used. One
end result of this structural streamlining compared to the
human inspiration is that ’Mechs generally have less fl exibility
and articulation than their organic creators.
The ’Mech’s so-called bones diff er between ’Mech classes.
The cheap, heavy bones of IndustrialMechs, for instance, are
quite diff erent from BattleMech bones and are beyond the
scope of this discussion. The bones of BattleMechs, meanwhile,
fall into two major designs at the moment: standard
structure and endo-steel structure.
Standard BattleMech structure uses major components
that are composites of foamed aluminum—
Eh? Yes? Could you speak up a bit for the microph—?
INTRODUCTION
CONSTRUCTION
BASICS
BATTLEMECH
CONSTRUCTION
INDUSTRIALMECH
CONSTRUCTION
PROTOMECH
CONSTRUCTION
COMBAT VEHICLE
CONSTRUCTION
SUPPORT VEHICLE
CONSTRUCTION
CONV. INFANTRY
CONSTRUCTION
BATTLE ARMOR
CONSTRUCTION
AEROSPACE UNIT
CONSTRUCTION
WEAPONS AND
HEAVY EQUIPMENT
INFANTRY WEAPONS
AND EQUIPMENT
COSTS AND
AVAILABILITY
BATTLE VALUE
INDEX
RECORD SHEETS
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