MMC-65 Ares (Heavy Metal Magellan)

This page describes a mech for the game Heavy Metal Magellan, from a mostly in-universe perspective.

MMC-65 Ares

About the MMC-65 Ares.

Overview

Name:	—
Model:	MMC-65 Ares
Chassis:	Medium Modular Core, class-65(a core that accepts attachments at 9 points: back, left and right shoulders, left and right chest bays, left and right arms, left and right legs)
Weight class:	Medium
Weight:	34 T (Dry) 65 T (Fully Loaded)
Height:	11.2 m
Top speed:

Description

The MMC-65 "Ares" is a bipedal war machine, made to be commonly and cheaply mass produced to bolster mech infantry forces. It’s a little over 11 meters Tall, with a squat appearance. The main reactor is housed in the abdomen just under the cockpit. The powerplant is an “off the shelf” Nissan 227 production type, with ports for recharging external batteries of vehicles and other light mecha. The pilot accesses the cockpit from a cable with a foot loop, which lifts him up from the ground.

Armaments

Standard armaments

Reinforced Arms and Legs

This chassis was designed with the possibility of hand-to-hand combat in mind. The hands and feet, wrists and ankles, elbows and knees, hips and shoulders have all been reinforced to withstand the stresses of mecha scale combat. With the right training, a pilot could be quite deadly even when all of his ammo is spent.

Monofilament Edged Combat Knife

The MMC-65 comes with a 2.5 meter long mecha sized knife, edged with titanium monofilament wire. In hand to hand situations, this allows the pilot a better chance of penetrating thick armor and striking a vital system or the enemy pilot.

Non-standard armaments

Ares Model 7 Quad-Medium Laser Rifle

This was the closest weapon available, and all Joseph was able to grab during his escape. Its a mech sized medium range battle rifle, consisting of a cluster of 4 medium lasers chained together in a box configuration. This weapon can fire from a detachable box power cell (Containing enough power for 30 shots) or it can draw power form the mech’s reactor core, allowing it to fire indefinitely. The only real disadvantage this weapon has is it’s limited range and its tendency to overheat if misused.

Subsystems

GN/GPG/-72 Fire control System

(Removable.) This is a standard issue, low cost FCS made to be mass produced for rank and file soldiers. Consists of:

Radar

Active and passive phased-array radar systems. Able to pinpoint airborne targets for roughly 100 km, if they're high enough and have a large enough silhouette. This system can pick out a small target (5m across) at 20 km in good weather, ~5 km under average conditions. Active radar gives position away, but is necessary for target acquisition.

Infrared and Low Light Amplification

These are standard issue optics that allows the pilot to have fair visibility in low light / Fog / Smoke filled conditions.

Mecha Communications Suite

A standard issue communications hardware package allowing the mech to coordinate with the rest of his mecha infantry unit.

RADU-2 (Reclaimed Automatic Diagnostic Unit)

(Removable.) This is Joseph’s Jury-Rigged Mark 2(6) AI. The system itself is made to tap directly into the mech’s computers for purposes of running diagnostics. In his haste to escape his damaged cargo container, Joseph used this AI to bypass the chassis anti theft systems. When not connected to an outside power source, RADU is able to operate off of its interal battery for about 10 hours. The system is housed in a standard interface computer frame, about the size and shape of a standard 5-gallon bucket. It weighs 20lbs

Jump jets

(Non-removable (built in to the MMC-65 core and the MC/B-8 legs).) These are compressed air thrusters made to give the mech somewhat better mobility in rough terrain, and to slow a parachute descent after a halo-drop. The system requires a full minute to recharge after being used. A fully charged unit is able to propel the chassis a distance of 50 meters, straight up or across.

Combat effectiveness

Strengths

Highly Adaptable

This chassis was made with the intention of creating a machine that useful in almost any situation. Its mix of fair speed, good armor, and generous hardpoints allow this mech to make use of any heavy (or lighter) standard mech weaponry pods. If a faster mech is needed, the armor and weapons could be stripped, and the mech issued a long range sniper type weapon. If close range combat is to be expected, the weapons and armor could be issued to reflect this.

Sealed Cockpit

This chassis was made with keeping the pilot alive as long as possible under extreme conditions. The MMC-65 is rated to operate completely submerged up to a depth of 200 meters. Its possible it could go deeper, but the pilot runs the risk of damage to the mecha.

Hands

(Borrowed from Deepka's mech) The hands on the MC/C-6 allow the mech to operate a wide range of equipment, without requiring any modification to the mech. It can pick up and use clubs, blades, rifles, shotguns, RPG launchers, and a variety of non-weapon tools. More importantly, it can reload hand-held weapons, implying a functionally infinite ammo supply in combat (assuming you have a functionally infinite ammo supply available).

AI system

RADU-2 is a high performance, (if unstable) AI that assists the pilot in battlefield situations. RADU is linked directly to the mech’s computers and sensors, and is capable of giving the pilot updates of the situation around the mech, as well as making suggestions of what actions to take. RADU has a limited ability to pilot the mecha, but is locked out of firing the weapons systems.

Modular design / Ease of repair

This chassis was made with heavy use and constant repair in mind. Being a mass produced mech, replacement parts are fairly common, and the chassis itself is spacious and roomy, allowing properly equipped technicians to make field repairs quite easily, usually able to complete their work in about half the time it took them to repair the earlier MMC-50s.

Weaknesses

Inexperienced pilot

Joseph Hendrial is a technician, not a pilot. While he is familiar with how to operate a mech, he has no mecha combat experience outside of the simulators and video games. Unlike the sit down arcade cabinets, the mech moves and heaves as he pilots it, and he finds this somewhat disorienting...

Limited communications system

The stock comms system on an MMC-65 is designed with only the basics in mind, as it was made to be a small part of a larger mech force, coordinating and networking with the units designated comm-Officer, who’s mech is usually equipped with a more advanced system.

Patchwork AI (RADU)

RADU-2 is a daisy-chained combination of obsolete components and spare parts. While able to perform better than the late model mark-6 AIs, RADU can be somewhat tempermental, and sometimes the parts have synch issues. There is a cumulative 1d10-5x1% chance for every hour he continuously operates that he malfunctions (The results of which are determined by a random table that’s currently in the works) The only way to prevent this is to put the system into a synchronization cycle periodically, which takes about one minute for every 1% that was accumulated. (IE if he accumulated a 34% error rate, he we need a 34 minute synch phase to find all of the bugs in the system.) The mech is inoperable during this time, since RADU is required to bypass the mech's anti-theft systems.

No secondary weapons installed

This particular mech was prepped for transport only, and did not have any of its hard points fitted with any weapon pods. The bays themselves however are functional, and are ready to accept upgrades at any time.

Jack of all Trades, Master of none

While this is a good mech for most situations, its not a great one. Light mechs are faster and more maneuverable, while heavier mechs have more armor and carry better weapons.

Page owners: King Serperior, Saria, Ralhend