Schrek

Description
Designed for extended, long-range bombardments, the Schrek PPC Carrier is capable of unleashing a deadly rain of particle fire.

Developed by Aldis in 2813 to overcome the heat issues which hampered the effectiveness of their immensely popular Demolisher tank, the company took an entirely different tack, replacing the Demolisher's mammoth autocannons with a trio of PPCs and enough Heat Sinks to fire them continuously.

While highly effective when firing from cover and the perfect partner to the short-ranged Demolisher, the design is unpopular with crews due to the Schrek's limited mobility and pitifully low seven tons of ArcShield VII Mk 5 plate, which makes it highly vulnerable to counter-battery fire. The Schrek's reputation also suffered due to the decline of technical knowledge during the Succession Wars era. Its use of an increasingly rare Fusion Engine to power its weapons array drove up the costs to buy and maintain the vehicle, pricing it outside the range of all but the most elite units until after the War of 3039. .

Weapons and Equipment
The trio of turret mounted Magna Hellstar PPCs allow the Schrek to unleash horrific firepower on a target. Also unlike other vehicles or BattleMechs mounting as many particle projection cannons as the Schrek, such as the fearsome Awesome, the vehicle mounts enough heat sinks to continuously fire all three at once from a fixed position. Because the Schrek mounts no other weapons, and due to the inability of PPCs to effectively fire at close range, it is rarely deployed without escorts such as the Demolisher.

Variants
To date no factory built variant exists, though a small number of field refits have appeared:


 * Anti-Infantry : A relatively rare field variant first seen in 2833, several units drop a few tons of armor to mount a Machine Gun or Small Laser to fend off infantry attacks.


 * Autocannon : Born of the dark days of the Third Succession War when Schreks were often cannibalized to replace the PPCs or fusion engines of BattleMechs, some owners re-purposed the design as an "autocannon carrier", installing an I.C.E. engine and autocannons. Three AC/5 with three tons of ammunition and eight Machine Guns replaced the energy weapons. While boasting a similar mission profile, stripping out unneeded heat sinks also allows extra armor to be added..


 * C3M : Developed during the Jihad this Shreck variant replaced one standard PPC with a Light PPC. This freed enough space and weight to add a C3 Master, Guardian ECM Suite, and an Anti-Missile System. BV (2.0) = 993


 * Armor : Introduced in 3072, the common armor is replaced with Heavy Ferro-Fibrous armor to increase protection. This variant has also an AMS to increase the defense capabilities of the vehicle. BV (2.0) = 1040

Custom Variants

 * Shreck II-X : The Shreck II-X, a 95-ton variant built on Arc-Royal, uses an XXL Engine to free weight for additional weapons. The tank has six Light PPCs in its turret; Three of them are paired with experimental PPC Capacitors. A Targeting Computer makes their fire even more accurate. Eight and a half tons of Heavy Ferro-Fibrous armor protects the crew, while a total of 45 heat sinks dissipates the massive heat load. BV(2.0)=1,407

Apocryphal Variants
These variants were introduced in various apocryphal sources, and thus far have not appeared in any canonical media.

From Ronin! Szenarioband - 3034 A.D.:
 * Vacuum : (from apocryphal source) Upgraded to operate in an airless environment, dropping one of the design's three PPCs in the process, this version was deployed by Ronin forces on Krakau, the moon of Predlitz, in 3034.