by Hilary Ayer
Overview: The Federated Commonwealth requested a design to compete against the Clans' artillery support 'Mech, the Naga. Investor groups from Nashan and Defiance Industries, as well as Kallon Industries formed a new limited company called 'TriTech', whose home base is on Talon. Tritech won the contract to produce five hundred of the new 'Avatar' BattleMechs. Capabilities: The Avatar has been well received by the few units that have received a lance apiece for field testing. Several features make the Avatar a unique 'Mech. The Avatar comes with two targeting and tracking computers, one for the main artillery weapons and the other for the secondary weapons system. It was made that way so that the pilot could operate the 'Mech and its secondary weapons while the other computer can automatically fire the main artillery weapon at preset coordinates. A problem that most support 'Mechs have in the field is lack of ammo. To help with this problem, the Avatar was designed to carry in its hands what have been called 'ammo clips'. These are specially made cannisters that can hold up to nine tons of ammo reloads for the artillery weapon. The cannisters are also covered with one ton of ferro-fibrous armor to protect the ammo. During long patrols the Avatar carries its reloads; otherwise the reloads are carried by support vehicles. The Avatar 'Mech can't reload the ammo clips by itself, but must have another 'Mech with hands to attach the cannisters to the back of the Avatar. This takes ten minutes. During the course of battle, a 'Mech cannot be reloaded, but there are often pauses between fire fights which give time enough to take care of ft. The Avatar pilot tries to avoid fighting hand to hand until it has emptied its hands. If it must fight, each punch that hits necessitates a 2D6 roll; on a result of 2, an ammo explosion occurs. The Avatar is one of the first 'Mechs designed to use the Federated Commonwealth version of the triple strength myomer as its standard. Deployment: The Avatar lances have been sent first to various Regimental Combat Teams based near Clan space, for field testing under the conditions of various raids. Two lances have gone to the mercenary regiment, the Knights of Sol, who are evaluating it from their position on Winter, near the Steel Vipers lines. Variants: The Avatar comes with three choices for its main weapon. The Arrow Missile System is the most commonly used; 50% of the Avatars produced have this option. The other weapons used are the Thumper or Sniper artillery pieces which are split evenly among the rest of the Avatars. AVT-7A AvatarMass: 80 tons
Armor: Kellon Royalstar Armament:
1 Defiance 1001 Extended Range Particle Projection Cannon 3 Defiance 133M Medium Lasers Manufacturer: TriTech Consortium
Type: AVT-7A Avatar
Head 3 9 Center Torso 17 25 Center Torso (rear) 10 Right/Left Torso 15 17 Right/Left Torso (rear) 6 Right/Left Arm 10 20 Right/Left Leg 14 26 Medium Laser RA 1 1.0 Medium Laser RA 1 1.0 Medium Laser RA 1 1.0 Arrow IV LT 6 Arrow IV RT 6 Arrow IV CT 2 Ammo RT 5 2.5 Ammo LT 5 2.5
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