Standard disclaimer: I do not own, BT, SC and this is a fanwork based on another series of fanworks (seriously go checkout/subscribe to the BPL and Tex Talks, its awesome).
-Recovered Stalker BattleROM, pilot 'Vandal' of pirate band 'Gerimia's Bloodspillers' on planet *REDACTED* playing: Timestamp 30XX: XXXX hours-
Camera feed from the Stalker shows it and three other mechs moving through a dense forest. All mech indicators show varying levels of armor damage.
Lance Transmission-Nero: "I said it before and say it now boss; why the * did you ever agree to this insanity?!?"
Lance Transmission-Vandel: "The amount of C-Bills and parts the client was offering. Also in case it slipped your collective empty brains, Tortuga is in on this along with a bunch of our 'colleagues' who wanted as many spare bodies as possible. Do you want a safe port in the future to offload loot? Saying 'no' would be a good way to lose that. 'sides, the Terrans are flush with crazy Lostech. Haul even half a cargo hold back home and we'll be living like kings."
Lance Transmission-Frosty: "Great, perfect, wonderful. Only one tiny little problem there fearless leader, we need to get all of said wondrous loot out of here in order to get all that money. And in case you hadn't noticed, we can't reach Star Butcher, you know our ride out of here? The only things we can pick up are the screams and pleading of our so-called allies because they're getting slaughtered like a bunch of squishes!"
Lance Transmission-Vandel: "Shut the * up Ice Queen, maybe if you actually had an idea of what we could do instead of just wanting to bitch at me-"
Lance Transmission- Iron Fox: "Ah boss?"
Lance Transmission-Vandel: "What Dave?!"
Lance Transmission- Iron Fox: "That fancy new computer the client put in my mech is saying something. What's 'incoming BVR rounds detected' mean?"
Viewpoint jerks and spins as the Stalker rapidly turns around and begins moving away from the rest of the lance at maximum speed.
Lance Transmission-Vandel: "Shit, shit, shit!! Spread out! Everybody, spread ou-"
Explosions overpower the audio recording, indicators flash showing damage being rapidly taken before the mech abruptly keels over on its side, the impact with the ground temporarily cutting off the recording. On reactivation, nothing can be seen on the cameras except smoke and burning stumps of multi-century old trees.
Audio report: "-gyroscope malfun-n-n-ctioning, sinking system ERROR, weapons group 1: –not found-, weapons group 2: 42% functional, cockpit armor at-at-at 13%, reactor daaaaaamage detecttttted, total armor level at……31%, internal dam-age deTecTeD."
Audio Record-Vandel: "-uuuuuck, Blake's shrived balls, what crazy dreck hit us?"
Camera viewshakes and what sound like massive footsteps can be heard.
Audio report: "WaRniNg: Terran IFF detec-ed, four signatures. Individual tonnage reading: 100 tons. RESULT ERROR- RECALIBATE…..100 tons. RESULT ERROR-RECALIBATE…..100 tons. RESULT ERROR-RECALIBATE- Visual contact, com-pari-ng profile data: KGC….error: MAD…..error, KGC….error, MAD/KGC MAD/KGC MAD/KGC…"
Out of the smoke, four impossibly large mechs emerge; each with a quartet of cannons on their backs while both arms sport bulky double barreled guns. One aims an arm at one of the lance's mech that is slowly trying to limp away. A single shot literally rips the machine in half.
Open Transmission-Vandel: ", , , , Kerensky-damn it! We surrender! You've won! We surrender, Blake as my witness!"
The four mechs turn to look at the crippled Stalker, one aims both gun-arms at it.
Open Transmission-UNKNOWN: "Smart move little mechjockey. Too bad for you, Raiders do not accept surrenders from sick bastard pirates that think shooting down civilian evac transports before setting the survivors on fire are fun times for all."
A bright flash blanks out the view before the recording turn to static.
And that class; was one of the first confirmed recordings of what the Terrans let off the leash when they've decided that enough is enough, they're fed up with your shit, and want to make a point nobody can miss.
Tex Talks Battletech Episode XY: The Thor Siege-walker: Hammer of the Gods
Chapter 1: One XXXL mech with a side of Ragnarök, hold the fries.
"There are things that cannot be fought - Acts of God as it were. You see a pryoclast storm racing down the mountain; you get out of the way or you die. But when you step into the cockpit of a Thor, you are that storm. You become an Act of God."
- Commentary by veteran Thor pilot
Now let's be clear, the Thor is far from the first mech in existence that exceeded the 100 ton weight ceiling. The Terran Hegemony, the Star League, the Great Houses, Amaris; everybody poked the idea of making an extra-large mech that could carry even more armor, weapons and equipment at least once. The problem that everybody found was that after the 100 ton mark, internal structure starts failing under the weight and myomer fibers simply can't pull hard enough to move the machine.
As a result, pretty much everyone gave up on the idea after the first tests; except Amaris who thought he could do better. And from his diseased mind we got the sad and pathetic existence that was the Matar, which probably broke a leg trying to walk for the first time. Said abortion was adopted by the Clans of Kerensky, given some liposuction, a name change, and was then universally considered the best thing since Bloodnames and the Remembrance. Makes you wonder sometimes.
Over in the Koprulu sector however, things took a different turn. You see, while neosteel-based servomotors and hydraulics were good, they found that if you made a machine any bigger or heavier than a Viking (medium mech scale); things started falling apart in a rather impressive and/or explosive manner. And while it was still possible to make heavy and assault equivalents by bulking up the internal structure, projections and tests indicated that the resulting machine would be just a bit expensive. How expensive? Somewhere to the tune of 'do you want one Atlas equivalent or a half dozen Union dropships? IE a price tag that would make even a Steiner wince and double check their bank balance. To no surprise, there wasn't much interest in making said machines. As a result, mech development over there fell to the wayside in favor of other weapons of war. Until one genocidal asshole by the name of Arcturus Mengsk came into power and decided to use his newly gained influence in the flashiest way possible.
Chapter 2: Damn Boi, He Thicc!
"So how does the Odin rate as a fighting machine?"
"Brother... it is the single greatest creation in the history of mankind. Stridin' around dispensin' righteous fury just about brought a tear to my eye."
- Jim Raynor and Tychus Findlay on the Odin Superheavy Walker
You see, while making the equivalent of heavy and assault mechs with neosteel components was cost ineffective at best and self-destructive at worst, continued Dominion testing found a funny property as they kept going bigger. Specifically that there was a sort of 'island of stability' if they made the mech and internal structure big enough; resulting in a (relatively) cost effective design. Sure it was still expensive as hell, but you were actually getting your bang for your buck at this point.
But like Amaris, Mengsk chose to go for the biggest, most impractical design possible. Meet the Odin. Yeah, Thor is a 'smaller, cheaper and easier to handle' version of this walking building. How big was the Odin? Well proper statistics are hard to come by but apparently it was too massive and heavy for the Terran's Hercules dropship to have a chance of hauling it around. The same dropships that can carry three Thors with space and tonnage left over. I'll let everyone think about that for a second.
Though to be fair, the designers did manage to deliver on Mengsk's insane demands for his superweapon. The Odin was the single largest mobile ground-based weapons platform ever made by the Terrans and was second only to battlecruisers in the sheer destruction it could cause. On the other hand, it cost the same as an entire army in terms of money and resources, was a special kind of hell to transport anywhere, and could only ever be in one place at a time.
There was one other little issue that turned out to be the death knell for Mengsk's dreams of an entire army of these giant stompy robots. Namely that it needed to be piloted by somebody. This wouldn't normally be an issue but the Raiders needed a distraction while they put the screws to Mengsk by showing just what sort of madman he was to the entire Dominion. So they hijacked the Odin, and on the day of its debut the machine showed exactly what it could do…..by blowing up massive amounts of Dominion military forces in full view of the public.
To nobody's surprise, after that hot mess there were some issues acquiring the funding and will to make more of the Odin (which got left behind when the Raiders had to exit stage left fast).
Chapter 3: Corporate Downsizing
"You nuts? No way we got the facilities for mass-producing hardware on that scale."
"And here I was thinking you could build anything, Swann."
"Cute. Alright - forget the scale! I'm gonna figure it out, don't you worry. An' I'll come up with something a damn sight more practical than that show piece. You see if I don't!"
- The conversation between commander Raynor and Chief Engineer Swann that would led to the creation of the Thor
Of course after seeing the sheer carnage the Odin caused, Raynor rightfully was interested in getting something similar for the Raiders. Unfortunately, they weren't the Lyran Commonwealth, and thus needed to worry about annoying little things like 'budget' and 'resource limitations'. So their chief engineer did his magic and the Thor was born. A machine with a similar role to the Odin but far easier to transport, build and work with in general.
And while direct information about current events in the Koprulu sector, what is known is that other parties (even the Dominion) have performed similar modifications to the base design of the Odin. So while the 'super prototype' is kept around the capital city and is probably taken out for walkies whenever Mengsk needs his ego stroked; its little brothers are the ones doing the actual work.
Of course that didn't mean that Thors were deployed everywhere in overwhelming numbers. Even if they were 'cheaper' than their predecessor, every single machine was a sizable investment to build and maintain. As a result while nobody was afraid to deploy a Thor, they would only do so when said oversized beatstick would be useful. But in order to understand, we first need to take a closer look at what makes a Thor, a Thor.
Chapter 4: Instruments of Destruction
"This siege-walker may not be unstoppable, but it is undoubtedly close."
- Hand-written note scrawled on the side of a page of Thor technical specifications.
The first thing to remember is that the Thor is not made from traditional internal structure or using standard armor as we, the Inner Sphere knows it. Instead they are built from the ground up with the Terran's miracle alloy, neosteel. But it's not just 'neosteel' here. You see the material comes in three differing grades of bullshit; civilian, military and starship-grade, each one tougher and harder to produce than the last. We're plenty familiar with the military-grade stuff that they coat their battle armor and vehicles in, making them far tougher than you'd expect. The Thor on the other hand uses starship grade neosteel, the very same material they use on warships that they expect to resist capital-scale weapons fire. How tough does this make the beast? Official statistics are hard to come by, but let's say that its armor tonnage is heavier than the weight of a light mech; and if you want to do more than scratch the paint finish, break out the AC20s and gauss rifles. Lasers, SRMs or LRMs? The only thing shooting any of those at a Thor will do is tell it exactly where you are.
And if that wasn't bad enough a tech company back in the Koprulu sector by the name of ATVX came up with a redesign for the Thor they called the 'Immortality Protocol'. Props to their marketing and branding departments at least. As for what it does? By now everybody should be familiar with the concept of CASE; blow-out panels that help to ensure that when the ammo stores of your mech get hit, the entire machine doesn't explode like a bomb. The IP redesign takes this notion to the next level so that when 'critical damage' is done to the Thor, the various secondary explosions, power surges and so on are directed away from vital components; resulting in an immobile wreck, but one that can be quickly repaired and brought back online if the SCVs swarm it fast enough. The IP-upgraded Thors also have another trick up their sleeves; self repair equipment tucked away in housing inside the 'bones' of the mech's internal structure that can be activated as needed. Now this thing can't pull off repairs to the extent that a team of SCVs can; but at the very least the pilot can ensure that his distress beacon is online, the reactor isn't going to fail and his life support will keep working.
All this has led to various rumors and tall tales by those that encounter the Thor (and live to tell about it). A heavily battered lance (or more than one) staggers back into basecamp proclaiming that they managed to wreck the Terran's supermech but need backup and multiple engineering vehicles to drag the thing home. Only for when they return to the sight of the battle there's nothing. Just a series of massive footprints leading away from the spot they collectively swore was the resting place of the machine's wreckage. As if the moment their backs were turned, the Thor decided to stop playing dead, brushed off the damage done and walked away.
In a similar fashion to its construction, the Thor's weapon systems are brutal, direct, over the top, and with no subtly whatsoever. Firstly in each arm there is a pair of 'Thor's Hammer particle beam' projectors set up to fire in very quick succession, sort of like an energy-based ultra autocannon. Only these things are far nastier than the Star League's UAC/5. After action reports and Battle ROM analysis put them dealing similar damage to a grade 20 autocannon while reaching the effective range of a PPC. That's right, with every pull of the trigger a Thor is hitting you with the equivalent of a King Crab's main weapon system; and it has one of these double guns on each arm. And what's worse, the way the Thor is designed it can fire these guns all day while staying cool unless the heat management system is damaged (which can be pretty damn hard to do).
Its 'secondary' weapons are just as insane. Those four cannons mounted on its back are actually closer in function to Thumper artillery pieces than autocannons. So when the Thor doesn't feel like tromping around to shoot you in the face, it unlimbers these cannons and proceeds to delete the grid square you're currently hiding in. The biggest difference between the shock cannon of the Terran's main artillery piece however, is that these guns have a shorter range and are designed to fire a quick flurry of shots before deactivating to cool the internal mechanisms. So while not a dedicated artillery platform, this gives the Thor the option of shaking up defensive positions before moving in to blast apart any survivors. And if you have any ideas about air-based attacks? You're out of luck. The designers also included an anti-air missile launcher that while not quite as nasty as the 'Longbolt' missiles that the Terran use in their turrets, can quickly smash any cheeky VTOLs and ASFs that aren't coated in heavy armor. That is of course assuming said forces get by the Vikings that are constantly hanging around any deployed Thor(s).
Of course, just because this loadout is completely insane doesn't mean that the Terrans aren't willing to mess around with the design. There have been several varieties, some more experimental than others with some appearing to be solely for the purpose of 'why the * not?'. LRM boats that make Longbows look like Valkyries, a couple sightings of something that looks like a Swayback's overgrown cousin hauling around enough lasers to melt an Atlas, even one where the artillery cannons were removed in favor of a brace of PPCs for even more direct firepower (as if the thing needed any more). The most common variant however is funnily enough one that doesn't look like a variant at all. What's done is the back cannons are swapped out for heavy anti-air guns. And when I say heavy, I mean that when these things first deployed in large numbers, the Clans suddenly found out that Safcon was very much not in effect. To the tune of their dropships undergoing rapid unplanned explosive disassembly while in mid-air.
Chapter 5: When all you have is a hammer….
"We got a King! Not a King Crab, but a fucking King! I repeat, the Terrans have deployed a fucking MAD KING! Fall back now!"
-Intercepted radio transmission during battle of *REDACTED*
Of course this over-the-top armor and weapons load-out, coupled with the general slow top speed of the machine (unless you're playing tricks with dropship transports) puts the Thor into a fairly specialized role. Because it doesn't have a hope in hell of chasing down anything faster than assault mechs or Urbies; and anything that can outrun it isn't going to stay close because they don't want to die.
So outside of situations where the enemy is fielding lances of assault mechs the Thor tends to perform one of two (or sometimes both) roles. The first is defense. After all, if you know where the enemy is going to attack, you can deploy a Thor at said point to serve as a giant, heavily armed, neosteel roadblock for anybody wanting to try anything. It's amazing how many mechjockeys reconsider their life choices when they see a Thor squatting on the location they were supposed to take and/or destroy.
The second role is something the Thor was meant for from the beginning and is even in it's official title; siege-walker. After all, military bases and fortifications can't exactly get up and run away (well except for the Terrans, but we can discuss that particular bit of insanity at a later date). So the Thors get pointed in the right direction and told "Go". At which pont the enemy has one of two options; abandon the location while hopefully managing to haul off enough materials that they aren't crippled for the rest of the engagement. Or two; try to fight one or more superheavy mechs along with all their little friends. As one might imagine, this second choice rarely ends well for the individuals in question.
To nobody's surprise, after seeing this beast in action; all the Great Houses have jumped on the tonnage train to at least some degree. So far nothing more than rumors and potential prototype names; Parliament, Uriel, Raijin, Zhong Kui, the list goes on. Can't tell how much is wishful thinking and how much actual construction has been accomplished. Though funnily enough there's scuttlebutt floating around that Lady Katrina Steiner gave Defiance Industries a verbal beat down when they basically asked for a blank check when it came to superheavy mech R . Apparently the lady prefers the LCAF boys and girls riding something that's actually useful as compared to a new toy that's just bigger.
Get all the jokes out of your systems now, I know you have them.
The one advantage of this tech rush is that all the Houses are constantly paying top C-Bill for mercs to go and sabotage (IE blow up with our mechs) their rivals attempts at developing superheavy platforms. Never let it be said that the Terrans aren't good at creating job opportunities.