Authors Notes:
Yes, I did make a Touhou Mechwarrior crossover.
I've tried to design this such that people who know Touhou can read through it without needing to know too much about the Mechwarrior series. Hopefully people who know Mechwarrior can read through it without knowing too much about Touhou, but I'm not going to work as hard explaining the Touhou intricacies.
Similarly I'm focusing more on Touhou for the story basis. Mechwarrior canon past the destruction of the Smoke Jaguar clan will probably be politely put aside. Not because I have any animosity towards it, but because I'm using the setting as a springboard as you will.
This is sort of a relaxation exercise for me. I intend to write a engagement for each windows game as it comes out, starting with this one here, SA. I'll probably take my time with it, but any time I have a need to write, but no real idea how to advance one of my other stories I'll probably slip back to this.
While hopefully most of the tech was explained in fic, I added some notes on the mechs, and why I assigned them to the particular characters. I'll probably do this at the end of each arc, for those who live minute details.
Technical Notes:
(If you want to see visuals of the mechs I suggest search on . That's where I did my hunting)
The weakest mech setups were the Sulla's for Koishi and Satori. Satori and Koishi were made Clan areospace pilots because of their ZUN art. I picked those planes to demonstrate to those unfamiliar with the setting how broken the Clan advantage is. Of course the two sisters fighting styles come straight from the game, with Satori reading her opponents like a book, and Koishi moving to catch them off guard.
Likewise Patchouli's Stingray is also kind of weakly connected. I mainly chose it for the Sunspot PPC, representing her royal flare. It is a very nice craft though.
Nitori's Rogue comes from her super youkai warhead status. It combines a whole lot of missiles with... not much else. But then with that many missiles you don't need much. Nitori of course turned her old stealth gear into the ability to look harmless until it's too late.
On the ground, Alice's modified Archer comes from her tendency to work with her dolls, or in this universe, her friendly infantry units. The Arrow IV system takes up most of the mechs weapon room, so most of her power relies on the doll squads getting a target.
Of course in this scenario Aya also helped. The Raven is a perfect mech for everyone's favorite paparazzi. It's fast, great at finding out things you don't want it to know, and with it's NARC pod, it can tell everyone else in the world where you are too.
Reimu's Albatross sadly isn't as well connected. It's kinda a jack of all trades Assault mech, but unlike most main characters Reimu isn't a jack of all trades. The Exterminator would have fit her job better, but it also would have blown up way too easy. It's not something a commander should have.
Similarly Sanae's Shugenja is kind of an odd fit. The name works, since Sanae's a wind priestess, but it's status as a command mech doesn't really work for Sanae. Still it's unguided missile launcher gives plent of room for divine intervention.
Suika's Akuma is much closer to character. It's big, has a sorta Oni like mask, and is designed to walk up into your face and blow you up. Sadly there's no real way of duping the mini Suikas.
Anyone who can't figure out why Marisa's piloting an Assault mech with 3 Particle Projection Cannons needs to go replay any of the windows games. The fact that it's actually called an Awesome is just icing on the cake. I feel bad about blowing it up, and I'm certain the whims of the universe will give her a new one.
Similarly the Behemoth was the only real choice for Yuugi (who of course has Elemental blood befitting her stature). With another gauss rifle replacing the large pulse lasers I think I was able to decently recreate her "knock out in three steps." Too bad it doesn't work as well in the MW universe. It's still a fearsome attack however.
Orin got the souped up Mad Cat of course. Both for the name, and because the Varient D madcat is a serious pain to fight. And because that doesn't fully represent how much Orin can make people cry I upgraded it beyond that.
Parsee was granted the Loki, which kinda makes sense, in a loose fashion. Since it's the Hellbringer in Clan terms it's name fits her well both for her jealous nature and as the bridge keeper to hell. It's load out is also kind of a sprinkling of random stuff, making it a decent fit for a girl who wants what everyone else has.
Yamame's Stalking Spider was mostly given to her because of the name and because it's a four legged mech. It's also totally out of it's element in this kind of fight, so alas, it fared poorly. The Earth Spider will get a better showing later I'm sure.
Lastly Kisume's Solitaire was a much better fit then I expected to get. The Solitare is designed to drop out of nowhere and blow up your stuff. Kisume is designed to drop out of nowhere and bucket you in the face. It was a perfect match.