Disclaimer: I do not own Battletech, nor do I claim to. If I did, I would not be wrighting this here. You would be seeing this in a hardcopy version with a LOT more stuff that what is posted.
Author's Note: Here is some of the technology behind Clan Northern Harrier and their advanced technology. Enjoy! Please Review and tell me if you would like to see anything specific. I will consider any suggestions I recieve seriously unless the suggestion is just plain stupid.
Clan Northern Harrier Alpha-Tech
Starship Technology:
Jump Gate: A device that creates a much larger Jump field than a single K-F Drive is capable of creating. It also greatly increases the power of the drive. This enables ships to jump much farther than 30 light years that a normal Jump traverses. The Clan Northern Harrier WarShips are each equipped with two rechargeable Jump Gate Emitter systems. A single WarShip, using a single Jump Gate, can travel from the edge of the Periphery to Terra in a single Jump. The same ship could also traverse from Nova VII to the edge of the periphery in a single Jump. However, Clan Northern Harrier has only a few WarShips, and so they instead made use of the Jump Gates to take their entire fleet a distance of three normal Jumps, or 90 light years, in a single Jump. The distance that is traversed with a Jump Gate is dependent on the number and size of the ships traveling through it. Smaller ships cannot travel as far as larger ships, and as such the Jump Gate will automatically limit the distance of the Jump to the maximum safe distance that the smallest ship traveling via the Gate can handle.
Inertial Dampeners: A ship equipped with inertial dampeners can protect the crew from being affected by the ship's acceleration past the point of 1G. Inertial dampeners do not, however, protect against the acceleration of a Jump, as they would overload if they were used to attempt such. The inertial dampener system was originally designed to allow Aerospace fighter pilots to perform the high-G maneuvers of a dogfight without the extreme stress on the body. It was later decided to adapt this system to starships, WarShips originally, to see if it could allow the extended use of high-G acceleration necessary to reach a planet from its jump points sooner when responding to a major crisis.
"Lohengrin" Plasma Accelerator Cannon: The Plasma Accelerator Cannon, or PAC, is a capital class weapon that fires a concentrated stream of excited particulate matter in the form of Plasma. Similar to the Plasma PPC sometimes found on mechs, this weapon produces far less heat than would be expected when compared to the amount of damage it inflicts. When the Lohengrin-class PAC is fired at its maximum output, it is capable of coring an entire WarShip, from bow to stern, with a single shot. This weapon is fed directly from the engines, and as such the engine power must be redirected entirely from propulsion to the cannon if it is to fire properly. It is also the only known energy weapon with any sort of recoil, and a ship under an acceleration of 1G for a full minute will be brought to a complete stop from the axial recoil force produced by the beam.
Reactor Technology:
Displacement Reactor: A prototype reactor designed to test the feasibility of using the high amounts of excess energy produced by displaced matter to power a Mech. Currently installed in the Silhouette Variable Force Experimental Mech, more commonly shortened to the Silhouette VFX, this reactor's true limits are still unknown. The Silhouette can withstand the immense power of the reactor only to 340% of the original theoretical output. As such, modifications have been made to the throttle, which is marked with percentages compared to the original theory on the amount of output that the reactor would produce. As the extreme acceleration and electron excitement produced at the 340% mark on the throttle interferes with the accurate measurement capabilities, the maximum speed of the Silhouette has not been recorded, either on land, in the air, or in space. The extreme excitement of electrons also has the unforeseen effect of rendering the Silhouette effectively a large blank spot on radar, thermal imaging, and magnetic resonance sensors. When these effects on electronic detection are combined with the Silhouette's midnight black paint scheme, this mech appears as a literal silhouette when viewed at night.
Modular Technology: (Addition 10/30/2011)
Point-to-Point Jump pod: A modular pod that can be attached to a fighter or anything with a fighter configuration. These pods allow for very short-range, extremely accurate jumps within the local system. Initially meant to allow a fighter to pursue a target fleeing at very high speed, the pod is rechargeable from the powerplant of the craft carrying the pod. The rate of recharge is dependent on the ammount of power being fed to the pod, and a high rate of flow is necessary for a reasonable recharge time. The pod masses one ton and is designed to be mounted externally, although there is a varriant for internal storage. Most pilots who use the pods will generally sortie carrying two, so they are not completely reliant on a single pod with their extensive recharge time. As the pilots would say, "One to get you to the target, the other to get you home." The pods have been addapted for shuttlecraft to use in running messages and personnel between shpis quickly without the ships needing to close to very close distances. The P-t-P jump pod allows small craft to jump to locations that are NOT gravitationally neutral. Further applications for this technology are being researched at this time.
