The Crushah is designed to act as an assault mecha. With a ground speed of 45 Kph, heavy armor, and heavy weapons load-out, this Mecha can keep fighting long after its competitors have retreated. Like all Battle Frames with a modular weapons array, the Crushah can bring optimal weapons for the mission. The Crushah carries a comparable amount of weapons as the Tiger Class Battleframe, enabling this chassis to pack a powerful alpha strike.

Slow speed, heavy armor, and extensive weapon systems are the hallmarks of the Crushah. While capable of use in any environment, including underwater, this mecha is best-used planet-side. Outfitted with heavier plate armor and large weapon load-outs, this mecha wins by outlasting the enemy. With the modular nature of this mecha's weapon arrays, you will find dozens of variants within the same unit, each unique to both the pilot and the mission.

Muk Skullcrusha joined the Blood Cross in 3019. On their first mission he discovered none of the Frame cockpits would fit an Atraxian of his size. Because of this, he and his boys resorted to the Atraxian design philosophy. They took parts salvaged from the Lion, Tiger, and Puma Frames and combined them. They called the result a Crushah.

The appearance of the Crushah varies, but the original had plantigrade armored legs to support the large, boxy torso. Above the hips, a modified Tiger torso reinforced with metal plates was crudely welded to the mech. The boxy, angular arms came from a Puma. This gave the mech a cobbled together appearance.
The Lion Frame legs used gave the Mecha a height of 14 meters. Boxy, angled plate armor covers the Mecha. A variety of weapon ports, such as direct energy weapons, large cannons, and missile launch tubes can be found dotting the Crushah. Plantigrade armored legs support the large, boxy torso as well as two boxy arms attached to the shoulders.

Organization : Atraxian clans
Type : General Combat Use Powered Mechanized Frame
Class : Crushah
Designer : Braindaggah
Manufacturer : Atraxian clans
Production : Unknown
Price : 1,500,000 silver coins

Crew : Many (1-10)

Width : 8.5 Meters
Height : 13 Meters
Mass : 100 Tons

Ground speed : 45 Kph
Jumping speed : N/A

Body : Heavy Armored Large Mecha

The Cockpit is situated between the shoulders of the mecha. Pilots climb aboard when the mecha is kneeling.

With the modular nature of the Battle Frame system, The Lion can carry a wide variety of payloads. Instead of fixed weapon systems, the Crusha has a variety of modular hard-points fitted with weapons per the pilot or mission requirements.

The hard-point locations and space available:
* Left Shoulder: 1
* Right Shoulder: 1
* Left Torso: 3
* Right Torso: 3
* Center Torso: 1
* Left Arm: 3
* Right Arm: 3
* Left Leg: 1
* Right Leg: 1

The onboard systems of the Crushah Battle Frame.

Systems directly pertaining to the chassis and hull, as well as defensive systems.

The Crushah is well defended, with thick resilient Energized Tungsten outer armor and a sturdy internal Skeleton.

Roughly analogous to the bones in the human body, the frame's internal skeleton chassis consists of a foamed aluminum core covered with various composite materials, wrapped in silicon-carbide fibers, and clad in titanium-alloyed steel. However, there are only between sixteen to twenty-five “bones” in a Frame chassis, partly due to the more simple nature of the design (i.e. a solid one-piece “rib cage” instead of multiple rib bones), which results in less flexibility and articulation than possible with the human skeletal system.

Nano-muscle fiber clusters are an artificial analog of biological muscles with greater strength to weight ratio. They are engaged with electrical current and its strength depends on the number of fibers activated, not the current provided.

Nano-muscle requires large amounts of electrical voltage to function, with the larger “muscles” obviously requiring more energy than smaller. However, they have high electrical resistance, causing large amounts of waste heat which needs to be dispersed or the fibers will fry themselves. This does, however, grant an advantage as Nano-muscle cannot be stunned by electrical discharges, even more so as metal armor and skeletons have a low electrical resistance, channeling and discharging any strong electrical hits into the ground.

Energized armor is composed of two separate plates, separated by an insulating material. One of the armor plates holds an enormous electrical charge, while the other acts as a ground. When a penetrator pierces the insulating material, a connection is formed between the charged plate and the grounded plate. This releases the enormous electrical charge through the penetrator, causing it to vaporize instantly. Converted to a heated gas the penetrator becomes effectively harmless.

Lower capacitor charges can vaporize pre-heated matter, such as explosive shaped charges and plasma weapons. At higher charges, the discharge can also vaporize solids such as projectiles. Unfortunately, energized armor offers little in defense against energy and mass-less weapons.

In an attempt to compensate for this weakness, Blackwell has begun manufacturing energized armor with tungsten composites, rather than the usual carbon nanotube style. Tungsten has a higher melting point than any other non-alloy in existence, as well as robust durability on par with that of depleted uranium. By using tungsten composites, energized armor has a much higher resistance to energy weapons than it would otherwise, as well as a healthier defense against projectiles.

The end result is known as Energized Tungsten Armor. The relatively low cost of tungsten combined with the simplistic design of energized armor results in a cheap and easy to produce defense superior to other lo-tech armors.

The Crushah has a standard life support system, with a pressurized cockpit, oxygen scrubbers, and a temperature-humidity regulation system. The lion also has an inertia control system to keep the g-forces on its pilot to a minimum.

The power supply for the Crushah Battle Frame.

Owing to its large size, the Crushah uses a powerful Nuclear fusion reactor, located in its chest, to generate the majority of its power, as well as to generate plasma for propulsion. The Crushah's reactor requires Deuterium-Tritium liquid fuel in order to operate. The Crushah carries enough fuel for six months of operation.

As a backup, the Crushah has three Stirling radioisotope generators (SRG), which in normal use supply backup power to the frame's electronics. During an emergency, the SRGs can be used to power the entirety of the frame for a short time, though there is not enough power for lengthy combat operations.

In order to transfer the plasma and power from the nuclear reactor to weapons and auxiliary thrusters, the Crushah has a series of Plasma Conduits which transfer plasma and coolant from the nuclear fusion to the Frame's systems. The parallel coolant conduits help regulate the temperature of the overall chassis as well as the fusion reactor during peak performance, such as in battle.

The Lion used an On-board AI systems suite to assist the pilot, easing his workload and making him/her much more effective in combat. Unfortunately, the Atraxians have no use for AI. The first thing they usually do is rip the AI out.

The heart of the Crushah is an extremely advanced quantum computer, capable of performing massive amounts of data-churning. The Crushah's computer is located in different places depending on the torso used.

The computer has sensors which, in passive mode, can detect things up to 100 miles away, and in active mode can detect and provide information (Heading, velocity, size, ship type, energy signatures)on objects up to 55 miles away. All of the Crushah's sensors are located inside the frame's main cockpit housing with secondary optics on both sides of the head, in the chest, and back shoulders. The Crushah has a variety of sensors including:

Electromagnetic sensors
Neutrino sensors (nuclear reaction sensors)
Visual sensors

The computer has a targeting control system that can give detailed information (Heading, velocity, size, vehicle type, and energy signatures) on ten targets, as well as position and orientation (IFF) on up to 25 more targets.

For close-range transmissions, it is more difficult for the enemy to intercept, because they have to be in the area of the beam. Also limited to light-speed.

Full spectrum, Dual-Modulation, range theoretically unlimited except by interference. Practical range is short since the waves only travel at light-speed.

The Frame uses a Mind-Machine interface control system, linking the pilot up to the Frame directly. Interfacing is achieved when the pilot dons the specialized helmet. The mind-machine interface is a step above manual controls and allows for pilots transferring to the new frame to have a shorter time to synchronize with it. The Interface also gives the frame faster movement and quicker reactions times.

Another design feature of the Frame is the SMM System. The heart of the SMM System is a large gyroscope located in the lower center of the Frame's torso. The gyroscope serves to keep the Frame steady during aiming, movement, and maneuvering.

arsenicjohn created this article on 2019/04/5.

bullroarer4 edited this article on 2019/6/7.

Crushah artwork by Splinterlight/GloomFlower https://www.deviantart.com/splinterlight

"Grandfathered" by bullroarer4 on 2019/12/07.

Taken from Battletech. All rights reserved to The Topps Company, Inc..