Legacy of Outreach?

[DeJaVu]

Type/Model: MAD-4K Marauder II
Mass: 100 tons
Chassis: GM Marauder
Power Plant: GM 300 Light Fusion
Walking Speed: 32 km/h
Maximum Speed: 54 km/h
Jump Jets: Chilton 850 Mk. II
Jump Capacity: 90 meters
Armor Type: Valiant Lamellor
Armament: 2 Lord’s Light 3 Heavy Particle Beam Weapons
2 Diverse Optics ER Small Lasers
1 Poland Main Model A Gauss Rifle
Manufacturer: GM/Blackwell
Primary Factory: New Valencia
Communications System: Blackwell Multi-Linq 55
Targeting & Tracking System: Dragwell Hi-Rez IV


The razing of Outreach and the attendant slaughter means it will be difficult for historians to determine what the legacy of Wolf’s Dragoons will be. A case can certainly be made for their valor, their determination, their tenacity. One can also appreciate the value of the technology they brought to the Inner Sphere. Or that they were the first to warn us of the Clan threat so many years ago.
Or you can just remember the Marauder II.
Ever since the Dragoons began allowing outside sales of the Marauder II, the massive ’Mech has captured the imagination of millions. After Barber’s Marauders upgraded to Barber’s Marauder IIs, that image took on a more solid shape. Even the destruction of both the Dragoons and Barber’s battalion did little to dampen that image.
The Draconis Combine has taken a collection of salvaged and rebuilt Marauder II chasses and refit them into a threatening new configuration. A pair of Lord’s Light heavy PPCs replace the Hellstars of the original model, while Diverse Optics ER Small Lasers replace the Martell mediums. The MAD-5A’s LB-10X autocannon is traded in for the hulking assembly of a Poland Main Model A Gauss rifle. The damage potential of this weapon combination is incredible. It should do some serious harm to the Blakists and the Snow Ravens that are besieging the Combine.
There is some bad news, though. It seems that the Blakists, during their sacking of Outreach, secured a number of unfinished chassis when they plundered the ruins of a Blackwell facility. They’ve taken a cue from the Dragon and refit these into more efficient killers as well. Their version resembles the Clans’ old Marauder II C more than the original Marauder II. A pair of snub-nose PPCs in the forearms gives the Blakist refit a familiar silhouette, but instead of an autocannon or Gauss rifle in the torso the Word has placed another PPC, this time a heavy. And it gets worse.
This Marauder II can jump a hundred and fifty meters, half-again what any other variant can do. Improved jump jets provide enough lift to hurl a hundred tons of metal mayhem through the air, and damn the Wolf Clan for inventing them.
Scavengers, that’s what these Blakists are. But if we’re not careful, all we’ll leave them is our sun-dried bones to pick over.