Compiled overview of the 95 ton
Nightstar 'Mech, from various
BattleTech novels and game sourcebooks:
The
SLDF High Command commissioned
GM BattleMechs and
Norse-Storm to design a heavy support
'Mech. After eight months of intense work the companies put into production the last of the
Marauder series of
BattleMechs, the
Nightstar. The
'Mech design then quickly became a casualty of the constant combat of the
Succession Wars.
Three months after the
First Succession War began,
Norse-Storm's primary production facility for the
Nightstar was destroyed by
House Marik troops. At the same time, several members of the
GM BattleMechs design team died in a freak accident at
GM's plant on
Kathil. Two hundred and fifty years would pass before
GM and
Norse-Storm recovered enough technological expertise to put the
Nightstar back into production.
The
Nightstar shares many of the
Marauder's design
features, such as its flexible
ball-and-socket joints. The
Nightstar's reinforced
Norse-GM Heavy TRQ Marauder chassis enables it to carry twenty more tons, giving it heavier weapons and stronger armor protection. The 285 XL fusion engine makes the
Nightstar almost as fast as the
Marauder,
and certainly as fast as most assault 'Mechs. Fourteen double
heat sinks keep the
Nightstar running cool on the battlefield.
The Nightstar's
weapons include a Norse-Storm Model 7D
Gauss Rifle and a Defiance P5M Medium Pulse Laser in each arm. A Defiance 1001 ER PPC is mounted atop the right side of the hunched torso. An Exostar small laser rounds out the arsenal.
The
Nightstar's impressive electronics package includes the Tek Battlecomm communications system, in production since the decoding of the
Gray Death memory core, and the DLK Type
Phased Array Sensor System. The best
'Mech targeting and tracking system in the
Inner Sphere.
The
Nightstar has seen limited combat with the
mercenary units
Storm's Metal Thunder and the
Blackstone Highlanders, who have
raided several
Clan-held worlds in the
Jade Falcon occupation zone. Various units in the
Lyran Alliance military are reported to deploy
Nightstars, including the
First Lyran Guards. The
Federated Commonwealth has stationed several Nightstars with units along the
Periphery border.
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