Rifleman

[DeJaVu]

Type/Model: RFL-6D Rifleman
Mass: 60 tons
Chassis: Kallon Type XV Endo Steel
Power Plant: GM 300 XL
Walking Speed: 54 km/h
Maximum Speed: 85 km/h
Jump Jets: None
Jump Capacity: 0 meters
Armor Type: Kallon Royalstar
Armament: 4 Mydron Snakekiller LAC 5
2 Bright Blossom ER Medium Lasers
Manufacturer: Kallon Weapons Industries
Primary Factory: Talon
Communications System: Garrett T-11A with C3
Targeting & Tracking System: Garrett D2j


House Davion loves their Riflemen. Or at least they love their autocannons. Evidence the Rifleman, the JagerMech, and the Enforcer.

All trademark Federated Suns ’Mechs, and all autocannon-armed. It didn’t surprise me when I heard rumors that a few of a new model of Riflemen escaped before the Blackwind Lancers annihilated the Kallon Weapon Industries plant on Talon with a nuke. I sent out the word for the specs and waited, and then I sent those specs to my granddad, because he used to drive one. Here’s what he sent back.

Dear Lydia,

What’s with these new Riflemen? They’re so bulky. They don’t look anything like Doris used to, and I managed to fight her across half a dozen worlds of this League without all that armor. I think the younger generation is getting soft. I was talking to Hector Ramirez the other day—you remember Hector, right? He had that fine son Juan you went to that dance with? Anyway, Hector told me about how the new Princefield graduates all want assault ’Mechs. All of them. I swear, in my day—

Okay, let me skip ahead.

Anyhow, these Riflemen. That Davion model you showed me would be a killer. Four autocannons and fast as an Enforcer to boot? Whew. I wouldn’t want to get caught in the open by that thing, no doubt about it, and with that kind of speed, it would be easy.

I don’t know why you told me that other one was a Taurian Rifleman. That’s a Davion ’Mech, darling. You can tell by the heat baffles and that supercomputer they got aiming the guns. I guess in the Periphery it don’t take a real man to aim a ’Mech's guns, but anything they hit with that light autocannon/light PPC combination is going to know its been hit. Now, tell me again, what is this stealth-armor stuff? No one really thinks they can make a sixty-ton BattleMech stealthy, do they? That sounds like some kind of cockamamie Liao stunt to me…

He’s a character, I know, but his insights are usually right-on. I did some digging, and it appears that all the stink the Taurians raised a while ago about the Davions stealing plans for their Ostrocs was a hoax to cover their own espionage. Or else someone is giving away these light autocannons and targeting computers. Who would do that?

If you don’t already know the answer to that question, well… you haven’t been paying attention.