COMBAT MECH SUIT - HOPPER

"Left leg actuator took a critical hit, left leg destroyed. I'm fine, I can still fight!"
-1st Lieutenant Connors, 28^th CMS Company 

Design

With the dense AA (Anti-Air) defense network and the rather savage and suicidal nature of Starkan fighter pilots, aerial reconnaissance during the Starkan campaign was deemed suicidal. As such, the Coalition developed the CMS – Hopper. The Hopper is based around the CMS – Pillar’s frame design, which made production and maintenance fairly easier. The main purpose for this new unit is high mobility and low altitude reconnaissance, meant as replacements (at least, temporarily) for aerial reconnaissance. The Hoppers are equipped with a dual light fusion engine on its rear torso, which are also found on aircraft for enhanced speed and mobility. This also gave the Hoppers the ability to overcome gravity, giving it a good all-weather and all-terrain mobility compared to regular ground based vehicles and the Pillar. Although, compared to the Pillar, the Hopper is lightly armored, but smaller and with the addition of the fusion engines, this also made it a rather challenging target to hit.

Weapons



To keep the Hoppers as light weight as possible, its armament and firepower are significantly reduced compared to the Pillar. The Hoppers are only equipped with a dual incendiary cannons, each mounted on arm units for an enhanced field of fire. (The M61 would be a close real life equivalent of this weapn) The ammunition for the cannons are also stored inside the arms, to prevent damage spreading to the torso if ammo explosion were to occur. These arms are also high mounted, which allows the Mech to return fire behind cover while minimizing exposure. When used properly, these arms are also used as shields to mitigate damage from the main unit and into the arms. Furthermore, should the arms become severely damaged in which it would cause damage to the main unit through internal fire or otherwise, these arms can be jettisoned to prevent damage.


Notable Battles



The Raid on Torus Valley – The 28^th CMS Company was tasked to raid an enemy weapons facility on Torus Valley. Due to the terrain, the Hoppers were able to sneak in behind enemy defenses. The destruction of the facility came in a rather small price. 8 Units were lightly damaged, 3 Hoppers were significantly damaged, and one Hopper was reported to have lost a leg after being shot by a sabot in the left leg's actuator. Surprisingly, the Mech was able to “limp” back home by using their jump jets.



The Pursuit of the “Golden Harmonica” – After research and weapons testing facility – codename “The Golden Nest” was raided by Starkan forces, the prototype CMS – Harmony was seized from the coalition. The 6^th CMS Battalion was immediately deployed to pursue the enemy transports and were tasked to retrieve or destroy the prototype. Although having lost 5 units with some units getting significantly damaged in the process, due to the mobility of the Hoppers, it took no more than an hour to retrieve the prototype back.

Future Developments



Further enhancing on what the Hoppers specialized, the development of Combat Mech Suit – Harmony begun. This time, the Harmony is designed to be a cross between aircraft and Combat Mech Suits

Inspiration

My main two inspirations for this design are the Terran Viking and the Clan Shadowcat

Note: I built this like about a month ago, I hesitated on posting projects since the last time I tried uploading this, PMC did that offline thing and I pretty much lost all the typed up stuff I did. It got me rather... annoyed