Sep 18

Sep 18 BattleTech: MORE Infantry Gear

First, thanks to Dipo Muh for allowing me to use his artwork for this post. This one is entitled “Soldier Guy”, which sounds more like the name of test-run practice art. If this is his practice stuff, click HERE to see the rest.

Second, if you enjoy these posts, consider joining me on Patreon (CLICK HERE). You’ll get behind the scenes access, cameos in the fiction I write, and will become part of the “brain trust” that gets to help shape and shine the Electrodrome and Godspar universes writ large.

BT:BE Infantry Gear

(TLDR: Just scroll down and keep yer eyes peeled)

The BattleTech: Beyond Electrodrome (BT:BE) unofficial arena expansion is not just a set of rules or pieces of equipment. Its a setting and a vibe. If you’re looking for things that fit nicely in the SLDF, that compliment Clan honor and echo the crisp clean lines of PPCs and lasers and autocannons, you’re still in the right arena, but here’s the deal: Electrodrome is gladiatorial combat in the degenerate periphery. Its a fucking shit-show.

Resource scarce, desperate, slap-dash. The cities are riddled with unregulated drugs, infested with lowlifes, criminals, and are lorded over by the same sort of out-of-touch legacy rulers and ultra-rich elites that we, in 2021, are all too familiar with.

Think Bill Gates luxuriating with a mouthful of organic burger as he says most humans will have to embrace synthetic beef.

Think Nancy Pelosi giving a tour of her ice-cream filled freezer as the American population, crushed by the incompetent and partisan handling of the pandemic, battle with unemployment and record levels of mental illness.

Those that preside over the Electrodrome don’t care about human suffering. They care about money. Pleasure. Spectacle. What do they care if a thousand desperate men are ground to red paste beneath the feet of iron giants? What do they care if a father of three is reduced to a cloud of elementary particles in the wake of a PPC blast? Give the Gamblers HEAT hammers. That should be a laugh.

To the Sternenlicht, the royalty of the ‘Drome, there is but a single elementary particle when discussing humanity, and its not the atom or the electron or the quark.

It is the C-Bill.

The Gamblers got where they are by wagering money, exchanging time and jewelry and gold fillings for C-Bills. Now they wager their lives. And their lives are worthless if they don’t produce a spectacle. Spectacle draws eyeballs, and where the eyeballs go, the money flows.

So every Gambler is given a choice. Wager your life, risk it all, and reap the rewards. Or die in ignominy and share the inescapable shadow-curse of your debt with your friends and loved ones.

Thus the Mauler. Thus the Mechwire. Thus the Assegai Rifle.

The weapons and tactics reek of desperation, and in the gladiatorial world of the Electrodrome, there is no sweeter perfume.

Assault Scaffold Projectors

Essentially this is a ‘roided-up version of the standard boarding tools used by infantry to conduct their daring missions. Imagine, if you will, a t-shirt cannon, but instead of disposable vestments, it launches a spread of canisters filled with netting and cordage to assist infantry in climbing and remaining aboard mechanized targets.

We like TAG. We like NARC. And we like ASPs. Same principle: one unit setting up another unit for success. Setting picks. Throwing a jab to set up a liver punch.

Also, the netting will not (I repeat NOT) slow the target down. Not, at least, until the infantry perform a full-on Freeman Manoeuvre and turn the cockpit into a scene from License To Kill.

Magnetic Pulse Limpets

This would be a standard piece of equipment for anti-mech operations, especially in the periphery or with pirate units that would prefer to salvage something as valuable as a BattleMech rather than grind through metric tons of armor and equipment.

Also, think about it. If we’re in an arena setting, how do you think the people running the show would feel if a buncha uppity debt-slaves destroyed a priceless piece of machinery and blenderized a million-C-Bill pilot just to save their own worthless, stinking biomass?

The Sternenlicht would fancy that about as much as the Martha’s Vineyard crew would fancy refugees moving in down the street.

Mimetic Ponchos

In the periphery they’ve at least HEARD of DEST Infiltration Suits.

Do they have the ability to manufacture sexed-up cybercat stealth-suits for their hordes of Gambler Infantry?

No.

Would they bother if they could?

Also no.

Hard no.

So instead of going through all the trouble of mastercrafting high-tech camo suits for their for-sure-gonna-die infantry, they essentially cut out big swatches of mimetic/IR camo materiel, attach a powerpack and control box, and then send the hapless and profoundly more stealthy warriors on their merry way.

The problem is this: move around too much and the poncho is going to move too, bleeding out heat and flashing skin for enemy optics and sensors to tag. So if you stay very still, you’re golden. But if you start getting froggy, you’re going to catch Infernos for sure.

There are advantages to the baggy nature of the mimetic poncho though. One of which is that it camouflages your environment as well, further breaking the wearer’s outline, further blending them and their gear into the background.

Perhaps more importantly the poncho allows its wearer to conceal far more gear while still stealth. And by “far more gear”, I of course mean “heavy body armor”.