Liberator (BattleMech)

Intended to be the first brand new BattleMech produced by the Free Worlds League in centuries, the Liberator never saw production due to a heavily flawed cooling system.

When SAFE uncovered evidence during the waning years of the Third Succession War that the Lyran Commonwealth and Capellan Confederation were both developing new 'Mechs (The Hatchetman, Wolfhound, Raven and Cataphract respectively), Captain-General Janos Marik decided to prove the League could match them. Providing Kali Yama Weapons of Kalidasa with lavish funds, Kali Yama leapt at the opportunity to outdo their rivals at Irian Technologies.

While intended to serve as more a line-trooper than IrTech's mediocre Hermes II, the Liberator maintains a similar ground speed as the IrTech design, mounting six and half tons of armor, just one ton less than the Hermes II to carry a heavier weapons loadout. Despite easily outperforming the Hermes II, the Liberator was doomed by a severe flaw in its revolutionary torso design which resulted in the complete failure of the production model's cooling system, missed in the hand-built prototypes due to different manufacturing techniques.

Covering up the issue to save the now multibillion Eagle contract with the LCCC in the hopes of being able to eventually fix the problem, the flaws were graphically revealed at the first public unveiling in Introduction Year::3018. Planning a carefully managed routine that allowed the 'Mech plenty of time to cool down, after the formal testing concluded Captain-General Janos Marik requested Kali Yama have the Liberator destroy an abandoned Augustus tank, the 'Mech's ammunition detonating under the crippling heat generated by a full barrage in under a minute.

With the marketing and contracts immediately cancelled, the Liberator ' s reputation was forever darkened by this failure, as Kali Yama eventually conceded to correct the issue would require the entire chassis to be rebuilt from scratch. The remaining three surviving prototypes would languish for nearly half a century. In a touch of irony, the last was destroyed in a live-fire exercise by the Augustus' descendant, the Moltke.

Armament
Trading the Hermes II ' s AC/5, medium laser and flamer for missile racks and an upgraded laser, the Liberator offered a harder punch. Carrying an LRM-5 in each arm as primary weapons supported by a center torso mounted large laser, an SRM-2 rack fitted to the 'Mech's left torso provided close-range backup. A single ton of LRM and SRM reloads gave the design reasonable endurance in the field, with designers determining on paper that volley fire alternating between the missile launchers with the laser to easily manage the 'Mech's heat load.

Design Quirks
The Liberator is subject to the following Design Quirks
 * Bad Reputation
 * Nonfunctional (Heat Sinks)
 * Poor Workmanship
 * Obsolete/3025
 * Prototype