Mech Classifications

MECH CLASSIFICATIONS are divided into a series of small exoskeleton sizes, and then larger classifications ranging from 5 tons up to 200 tons. Each class is good at a different mission, with the smallest even functional inside buildings, while the largest are the *size* of buildings.

Exoskeleton - "Exo", "Skellie"

Mass 30-300kg

A lightweight system of limb and spinal augments. Used in conjunction with regular armor. Augments a user's strength, dexterity, speed. Often equipped with stilts, extending arms, or other methods of greatly increasing one person's utility in everything from warehouse loading to combat. Cheap and easy to produce.

* Examples:
	+ JCS-77 "Powerlift", used by JUG combat engineers
	+ WG-09 "Warrior", developed by China, used by many Earth-originating powers
	+ ST-6d "Irmanova", out of date Russian suit now used by many pirate organizations, including Neptunian Hagmars

Powersuit - "Crabsuit"

Mass 200-750kg

An all-encompassing series of interlocking plates, reinforcing bars, servos, actuators, and solenoids used to greatly enhance a user's survivability and strength. Usually comes at the cost of mobility, though the very expensive ones can mitigate this or eventually slightly enhance it. Used in dangerous applications, like foundry work or inside reactors, or in combat by mechanized assault troops expecting to be in direct line of fire. Quite expensive, and excludes the use of other forms of armor.

* Examples:
	+ JCS-50 "Landsknecht", used by JUG assault troops
	+ MKM-4 "Panzer IV", developed by Germany, used by European powers

Extreme-Duty Work Loader - "X-Loader", "Power Loader"

Mass 1000kg-3000kg

Similar to the Powersuit, but the suit itself is much larger than the user, who is stationary in a cage in the middle of the suit while it does the actual work. The user uses a system of joysticks, pedals, and triggers to control the actions of the suit. The commercial version can be found everywhere several-ton objects must be maneuvered regularly. Particularly-creative space marines learned they could weld titanium plates to the outside to protect the user from incoming fire, install a camera array, and use it as a line-breaker or point defense device. Guns, missile launchers, and chem-pumped lasers are often added to enhance combat viability.

Flyweight

Mass 5-10mt

The lightest class of "true mech". Flyweights are barely enclosed, with some requiring the user to lay in a semi-curled prone position rather than sit properly. They often stand barely above a standard infantryman, two or three meters tall. A skilled flyweight mech pilot is a great augment to an infantry company, which can be complemented one to three of this size of mech to enhance firepower, scouting capacity, and mobility. Whereas a human can comfortably carry a .75 caliber sniper rifle but must be stationary to properly use it, a flyweight can be fitted with a 20mm Lahti with a stabilizing mount and fire it accurately at a run. Flyweights are most suited for "knife fights", fights at a range of a mile or less, when it comes to mech on mech combat, as at a distance they can be easily showered in heavy-duty missiles from larger mechs who don't need to worry about aiming to disable them. At closer range, though, these large mechs are less effective.

Bantamweight

Mass 15-25mt

A bantamweight mech allows the user to properly sit, and might even have a few amenities like central heating and cooling. They can be as stout as lightweights, just thicker and better armored, but some can reach four meters. These bantams are fully enclosed and decently armored against small arms, with angled surfaces and protected gun carriages. They are still too small to retract, so even when hung up on racks the guns hang down. Many of them are equipped with flight systems, but otherwise act as more structurally sound flyweights. Some bantams are even suited for void combat, though this is largely the purview of the middle mech weights.

Lightweight

Mass 35-60mt

One of the most versatile mech weights. These can stand up to six meters tall, about as tall as a two story house. Mechs can get much heavier than tanks and require fewer operators, but are more expensive and the human-like locomotion methods require more money and technicians to maintain. Experienced pilots prefer this class when it comes to light work. Suited for "hot entry", a heat-shielded drop from a space station or orbiting vessel onto the surface of a world, the lightweight is often dedicated to running a screen assault for heavier-weight mechs. Heavy-duty blasters and pulse-phase chem-lasers are the main armaments of these mechs, but they can also be seen with missile pods, autocannons, or multi-Gatlings. To make up for their slower speed, they often have flight systems or multiple pairs of legs for temporarily quicker locomotion.

Welterweight

Mass 75-100mt

A good, hard-hitting mech that can punch well above its weight. Often overarmored lightweights, but some of these can get somewhat taller - though much taller without top-attack protection is asking for aircraft to drop bombs on it. Welterweights can be big and slow, but can mount howitzers and longer range artillery pieces, often using them in direct fire or over-the-horizon applications to sling armor-piercing shells at mechs their size or bigger, or fragmenting "steel rain" at unprotected infantry. Often, because of the advanced functions of these mechs, they have two operators - one acting for the locomotion, the other for observation and firing of the weapons. When immobile, control can be handed off to the other operator, allowing increasingly accurate firepower in multiple directions - especially useful in air defense.

Cruiserweight

Mass 115-150mt

Some of the first mechs to push above 100 metric tons were slapped with the label "cruiserweight", though the size and durability of mechs has crept up enough that this label more accurately applies to the previous class now. These mechs stand 8-10 meters tall, with enough room for operators to move around inside the mech. These absolutely require multiple operators, often a gunner, commander/observer, and a driver, similar to a tank with an autoloader. Also like a tank, they usually come equipped with heavy-hitting smoothbore cannons which can also fire saboted missiles. The ammunition complement for these can be relatively limited, so lighter caliber rifled weapons are used, with anything fro 15mm machine guns up to 25mm cannons often used to supplement the bigger guns. The most advanced of these can mount an "evil eye" system, which is a centrally-mounted continuous laser right in the chest or head of the mech. This can cook rivals in or out of vehicles with X-rays, gamma rays, or heat, turning squads of exposed infantry into matchsticks or mechs into smoldering cages full of dead pilots. These Evil Eyes can rapidly overheat, and can often be used for at most 20 seconds before risking severe damage to the mech's propulsion and targeting systems.

Heavyweight

Mass 160-200mt

The biggest mechs in service. These mechs cost billions of credits to produce and few exist at any given time. They are treated almost like battleships, given unique names drawn from history like HMS REPULSE or USS REPUBLIC. Crews of hundreds maintain them between combat missions, while operator teams of between five and ten pilot them. A pilot, copilot, several gunners, an observer, and often an onboard engineer is required to keep a beast like this running, and other mechs run interference for it. Rolling mech fleets are not common, simply because maintaining that many of them in the field is absurdly expensive. Cannons ripped straight off the heavier ship classes are right at home here. Being quite so large, often up to 15 meters, they are easy targets in suburban and flat areas, but they can also drive straight through small buildings with practically no structural damage to themselves. As urban bulwarks, they are unmatched, but have to be guarded by smaller mechs to hold off flanking maneuvers. Their immense size means their turning radius can be quite slow, and their joints, actuators, and hydraulics are viable targets from the sides and rear. These are sometimes equipped with heavier-duty Evil Eye systems, able to stay on longer and hotter because of more thermal mass and bigger reactors.