Musketeer Hover Tank: A Five-Year Report

[DeJaVu]

Musketeer Hover Tank: A Five-Year Report
[25 January 3071; AFFS News] Although it’s been a little more than six years since the Musketeer first floated into service on New Avalon, reports of its service have been sterling in almost every instance. Although very few of the chassis managed to escape New Avalon before the Word of Blake descended in 3067, the Musketeer has given sterling service on the capital.
A powerful tank built on a hover chassis, the Musketeer carries the Mydron Tornado RAC/5 into combat, supplemented by reliable Streak short-range missile batteries. Well-armored for a hovercraft, the tank also credits its impressive speed as a defensive measure. Many units of Musketeers play prominent roles in cavalry and scout formations—the Tornado gives a Musketeer unit firepower far out of proportion with a normal armored vehicle of fifty tons.
A notable engagement happened in the Outback in 3069. A company of Musketeers had been attached to the Crucis March Militia on Broken Wheel. Six pirate BattleMechs—suspected to be operating far from their bases in the Tortuga Dominions—raided the continent they were operating on, headed for an AFFS resupply station that supported anti-pirate operations in the PDZ. The twelve Musketeers managed to intercept them on their way back to their DropShip. Although eight of the Musketeers were destroyed—and three crews killed—they managed to disable or destroy all six of the pirate ’Mechs, including the pirate leader’s -3K Charger.
With the damaged sustained by Corean’s facilities in the occupation it seems unlikely that the Musketeer is still in production, but the designs were undoubtedly distributed to other Corean facilties in the Federated Suns, so even if the molds are destroyed they can be recreated.