The CLS colossus was the premier design from Troll Mech Works, a startup enterprise in the Sarna March (later Chaos March). First coming off the line in 3057, the design won immediate favour in the Lyran Allicance – big, bad & loaded with gunbarrels, what Steiner wouldn’t love it?

The colossus did, frankly, start life as a Devastator clone. However, the designers, led by Jock Harquin, always felt that the Devastator lacked a heavy hitting weapon to provide the ‘head-hunter’ capacity. Bearing a number of design features soon to become the hallmark of Harquin designs, the colossus featured: large feet with all-round innovative ‘toes’ for improved balance & stability, plus enough armor & heavy weapons to hold its own in a long-range slugging match – plus a nearly un-matched close-range punch with it’s UAC-20. The cockpit is set in the torso (but not torso-mounted), and the ‘Mech is equipped with spotlights for night fighting.

While lacking heatsinks to easily support a full alpha strike, the colossus can easily cope with firing both PPCs and the Gauss Rifle at range, and can open up with a nasty surprise if the opponent decides to close.

Interestingly, TMW obtained the rights to the name colossus while ignorant of the Solaris VII assault mech of the same name. Jock Harquin did order 2 units, designated CLS-J2, built with large pulse lasers instead of the PPCs. They has performed well in the Class 1 arenas, but a “grudge match” for the name hasn’t been organised – or allowed to happen – yet.

One prototype, the CLS-J1, carried ER PPCs and an anti-missile system, plus an LBX-20 instead of the UAC. It proved to have more heat problems, and the LBX-20 lacked the cockpit-smashing punch desired.

While not many Chaos March units can afford to buy the colossus, a significant number have been shipped to the LA before the commencement of the Fedcom Civil War. They were initially assigned to the Clan border, although there are unconfirmed reports of units sighted on Tharkad in the climactic battles of 3067 – certainly, none survived on the LA side. One Kell Hound warrior, surprised by the UAC on what appeared to be a long-range ‘Mech, was quoted as saying “it was like he’d brought a shotgun along to a knife fight”.

A recent production run was bought completely by agents claiming to represent House Marik interests, although none have appeared in Free World League line units.

About TMW:
TMW (Troll Mech Werks) is a collaboration of several smaller component suppliers in the Chaos March fringe of FedCom space. Started by Jock ‘Troll’ Harquin (ex-Marik, ex-merc), the company   is dedicated to producing “big ‘mechs, with big feet, big guns and roomy cockpits”. Much of this philosophy is attributed to the many years Harquin spent trying to get his 6’6”, 135kg frame into standard ‘mech cockpits.

TMW supplies limited-run designs to most customers; however, FedCom and Marik customers seem to get better service, while Lyran Alliance brokers are grumbling about how long their orders take to process. For some reason, Capellan orders are always bumped to the bottom of the queue. TMW trades on the New Syrtis and Atreus stock exchanges as code VJHTMW; shares currently priced at 17.35C-bills (down 0.05)