The Jagermech, talk to any mechwarrior and they will
regale you with stories of pummeling the mech to scrap or
fearing for their lives as they piloted them into battle.
The Jagermech was designed to replace the ageing
Rifleman in its role of long range fire support. The
Jagermech solved many of the Riflemans defects but it
still has two major flaws, its light armor for a mech its size,
and its reliance on low damage long range ammunition
based weaponry.
Despite the downfalls of the mech, it never the less has
becomeone of the most numerous of direct LOS fire
support mechs on the modern battlefield with all of the
great houses using the mech in one of its many variations.
With the entrance of the clans and their conquest of many
inner sphere worlds, Jagermechs saw front line duty
against the invaders. They were decimated. The clans
superior long range fire power destroyed the mechs
before they could put up any significant resistance.
In light of this designers from the Draconis Combine set
out to create a replacement mech capable of harassing
clan forces. Engineers noticed almost straight away that
the existing Jagermech chassis would require only
minimal redesign for omni-mech conversion and that it
would cost only a fraction of the time and money
needed for creating a totally new chassis.
The first task was to overcome the woefully light armor
rating for a mech its size. Designers toyed with replacing
the standard engine with a XL engine. Testing proved that
the mech was still too easily crippled thanks to the extra
bulky engine and that the resources required were too
high for the mech to be massed produced.
Instead the designers gave the mech a lighter endo-steel
skeleton, giving an extra 50% of armor protection. More
armor was added once weapon configurations were
completed. This gave the Jagermech JM2-O 11 tons of
armor, almost double the amount of protection mounted
on previous variants. To further increase the mechs battle
lifespan CASE was placed in both the left and right torso.
The second task was to give the Jagermech more
sustainable long range fire power. The combinations of
lasers, PPCs, Guass rifles and autocannons mounted on
the JM2-O allows the mech to harass from long range with
good lastability. If one of the ballistic weapons is
destroyed the combined ammo bins mounted allow the
other duplicate weapon to have access to the remaining
ammo. Upgrading to double heat sinks meant that the
mech can mount more energy weapons without worrying
about heat build up.
The Primary variant is the closest to variants seen in
todays armies. It mounts a pair of Ultra autocannon 5's in
each arm backed up by an ER large laser mounted in the
center torso. This gives the mech decent long range fire
power and and it carries 30 bursts for each autocannon.
Rounding out the design are twin medium lasers for short
range protection and two extra heat sinks.
Alt A is one of the more popular variants mounting two of
the new light gauss rifles. This gives the A variant the
longest range of all the variants. Each rifle has 24 rounds
and the variant is rounded out by 3 ER medium lasers.
Alt B is primarly used for assaults or urban garrisons with
the twin LB-10X autocannons giving accurate heavy hitting
firepower. For close range defence a trio of forward firing
ER medium lasers are mounted and another ER medium
fires in the rear arc.
Alt C is the energy variant for extended campaigns
without support. Its quad mounting of large lasers give it
heavy hitting firepower without worries of ammunition
shortages. Because these produce tremendous heat
buildups and because of the Jagermechs arm mountings
prevent them from being used for infighting a pair of
medium lasers and twin machine guns are mounted. 6
extra double heat sinks are added to combat heat
buildup. This variant has found a niche in arctic and low
heat environments such as space.
Alt D provides the greatest firepower of any of the
variants. The massive Guass rifle and ER PPC give it
devestating long range fire power and the trio of medium
lasers give good close range protection. The
gauss rifle has 24 rounds and 2 extra heat sinks
were added for the PPC. However this variant does not
see much use as mechwarriors have to constantly adjust
for the weight difference between the two arms.
Alt E is a test variant. Should the occassion require the
use of an indirect fire support mech the JM2-O can be
fitted with twin Atremis IV equiped LRM-20's, each
carrying 15 volleys, and a trio of medium lasers.
Battle History
Only a few JM2-O's have seen action so far but that
number will rise with the aggresion of Clan Ghost Bear
and the deployment of JM2-O's to the front lines. One fire
support company commander has relayed the success
she has had at the controls of a JM2-O. She while piloting
a primary variant accounted for an Ursus and assisted a
Dragon in claiming a Grizzly during a failed raid by the
Bears.