The Crab has been a stable mech for the Draconis
Combine for the past 35 years and a house design for the
last 20, and has brought the Dragon glory and honour.
Even against the clan invaders the mech gave as good
as it got.
One of the bleakest days for the Combine was the day the
Nova Cats took a planet that produced the venerable
CRB-28 design. When the Combine and Nova Cats were
united under the Star League and the Nove Cats given
control of the Irece Prefecture the battlemech plant and
world remained under Nova Cat control.
The Nova Cats were going to upgrade the line to produce
thier Nobori-Nin class omni-mech but these plans were
put on hold because extra resources were required for
the construction of the Nova Cat class omni-mech line
located on Irece.The Nova Cat Khans decided that the
clan needed a spiritual boost to regain the moral lost
during the failed campaign against the Inner Sphere and
thier abjurment from the rest of the Clans.
Now the Cats face a new threat, the Ghost Bears are
throwing everything they have against the Combine and
the Nova Cats and the Cats are feeling the pinch. Losses
have been great and resources are in short supply and
replacement mechs are needed immediately for the
defense of thier homeworlds.
The battlemech formerly producing the CRB-28 was
to be brought online and the Cats were about to begin
upgrading the line when the bears struck. Instead of
rebuilding the entire line to produce an entirely new
chassis the Nova Cat commanders ordered a refitting of
the Crab chassis for use in garrison units.
Clan designers overhauled the CRB-28 design and
replaced the mechs components with clan technology.
This made the already dangerous design, deadly.
The Clans improved ER laser technology would give the
Crab IIC greater damage capacity at 166% the range of
the original weapons and the Clan double heat sinks
would greatly improve the heat disapation of the mech.
Designers first upgraded the armor and skeleton of the
mech replacing the currnet systems with Ferro-Fibrous
armor and Endo-Steel internals respectively. This freed
up even more space and allowed designers to further
upgrade the mech.
The Clan engineers next replaced the arm mounted large
lasers with ER variants and upgraded the short range
firepower. The technicians added a Large heavy laser to
the right torso to replace the mechs close range
weaponry. With a damge capacity and range the same
as that of the both original Crabs main weapons it's large
lasers and just over the same heat output this weapon
dramatically increased the Crabs close range firepower.
The only addition to the short range weaponry was the
addition of a flamethrower to the nose of the mech for
anti-Elemental duty.
To combat the enormous heat buildup produced an
additional 3 double heats were mounted on top of the five
additional heat sinks already present on the CRB-28
variant. This allows the mech to fire all its long range
weapons or all its short range weapons and one ER laser
and still be able to control the heat buildup
Finally the designers took a leaf from the Combines
manufacturers book and added a second pincer to the
mechs left arm. While the claws would not be as powerful
as those mounted on the triple strength CRB-29 they
would still be a formidable weapon.
Deployment
The Crab IIC is seeing deployment in many of the
surviving provisional and second line garrison clusters
and galaxies filling spots opened by transfering of
omni-mechs to the front line galaxies.
The Crab IIC as become accepted and respected by
members of the Nova Cat clan and is set to find a
permanent place in the clans touman after the threat of the
bears has past.
Battle History
Several Crab IIC's have seen heavy fighting against the
Ghost Bears but have been able to hold their own even
against heavier omni-mech chassis. One notable
instance is that of Star Captain Jason, who when faced
with a Vulture B was able to destroy the mech and claim
the mechwarrior as a bondsman, while only sustaining 45
percent damage to his mech.
Other Variants
No official variants are known to exists although field
commanders have been known to replace the large
lasers with other variants of the weapon to suit thier
fighting styles. Some of these variants have been seen
weilding two heavy large lasers and only single ER laser,
others 3 ER large lasers. One report also states that a
variant mounting 3 large heavy lasers has been
operating in an arctic area.
Preliminary plans have also been drawn up for an Crab
variant with a movement factor of 6/9/5.
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Actual BV 1483
Max Damage 38
Max Heat 47
Large heavy lasers weigh 4 tons
heat 18
damage 16
3 crits
0/5/10/15
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