Clan Tri-Laser

The Clantech Tri-Laser is a short-range direct-fire ammoless energy weapon. It fires three simultaneous but separate beams to a target.

Conception
It was developed by Clan Jade Falcon anticipating in anticipation of the anticipated invasion of the Inner Sphere. Anticipatedly, of course.

Development
There were several problems during development, including that the heat-to-power efficiency was less than anticipated - lower than in ER Small Lasers. The system was almost as heavy as a Clan ER Large Laser but had a lot of less range, with only a slight improvement of the damage output (though still being somewhat more heat-manageable).

The overall greater chance to hit the target through redundancy was touted as a large bonus, yet this also meant spreading damage in many cases instead of concentrating it - a penalty in regards to armor penetration. It was, however, good vs infantry, aerospace, and vehicles.

Operational history
Despite the weapon system's apparent shortcomings, some Falcon star captains wanted to have the last of the last weaponry, and thus, refitted their 'Mechs with the tri-laser. After all, it did increase the chance of critical hits, and its damage output was still fairly good.

Star Colonel Nicolai Malthus piloted a custom Summoner that, despite false reports to the contrary, boasted one tri-laser on each leg. Documentary evidence clearly shows three lasers shooting from each leg section. The fact is that non-superheavy battlemechs and omnimechs only have two leg hardpoints, making his use of tri-lasers indisputable.

The battlefield christening of the Tri-Laser in the Clan Invasion yielded better results than expected, though this could easily be ascribed to the fact that basically all Tri-Lasers were exclusively used by veteran and elite mechwarriors in positions of command - against technologically inferior and unprepared Inner Sphere enemies, that were also demoralized by the sight of enemies shooting "more beams than was even possible".

End
However, the expenses in continuing development during trying times for Clan Jade Falcon (Seeing that Clan Wolf khan, Ulric Kerensky, became saKhan) meant that the program got cancelled and eventually the tri-laser became LosTech. Reasoning for the cuts were that improvements were slow and as it stood, two Clantech Extended Range Medium Lasers outperformed the system in most scenarios. Supporters of the program claimed the comparison was "unfair" since that weapon was probably the most obviously and blatanly overpowered of all, yet the project was shut down anyways.

With very few units initially produced, high mantainance cost and lack of spares, the weapon became very rare already in the Jihad era. In 3091, the last Tri-Laser exhaled its last attack, before being destroyed, ironically enough, by a Falcon. It was on a salvaged Timberwolf operated by Dark Caste bandits.

Timeline
Prototype: 3039 Introduced: 3049 Extinct: 3091

Rules
The three beams of a Tri-Laser are pointed to the same target (and the same section, if you are attacking in that targeting mode). Even though they share the same overall trajectory, each beam is calculated as an independent attack for the purpose of to-hit rolls and damage. Tri-Lasers are compatible with Targeting Computers.

Trivia
This weapon is a reference to Nikolai Malthus's appearance on the BattleTech animated series. We can see his 'Mech firing three lasers from each of the legs, which would be impossible in normal circumstances as those legs only have two free hardpoints, with a maximum of one laser being fitted in each.