Battleaxe II BTL-AX80B

Mass: 80 tons
Chassis Configuration: Biped
Power Plant: 240 Fusion
Cruising Speed: 32.4 kph
Maximum Speed: 54 kph
Armor: Standard
Armament:
     3 PPC
Manufacturer:
     Primary Factory:
Communication System:
Targeting & Tracking System:
Introduction Year: 3020
Tech Rating/Availability: Inner Sphere
Cost: 6.60 million C-bills

Overview
The Battleaxe II is what the Periphery March built when it stopped pretending it wasn't angry. The flagship of the Class of 3020 — the rearmament wave ordered by the Common Heart program's Rearmament Edition — the BTL-AX80 was Memphis Motive Works' announcement that a company which had never built above thirty tons now built assaults, and the revival of the ancient Battle Axe name from the first BattleMech generation was itself the message. The message was received. When Tennessee Starr came home in 3023 to raise three regiments, the heavy companies' equipment was already coming off the line at Memphis, which is a fact intelligence services took several more years to find as alarming as it was. The engineering was as pragmatic as the politics were pointed. Rather than develop a new assault frame, MMW built the Battleaxe II on the internal structure of the Victor — the Federated Suns' ubiquitous eighty-tonner — meaning every structural spare in an AFFS depot from New Avalon to the Outback fits a Battleaxe, and every March machine shop already knew the bones. Atop that frame sits pure Common Heart: the StarHeart 240, TriStar Standard plate, Multilink comms with TrackMaster targeting, three loadouts on one chassis, and — in two of the three — no ammunition at all. The Guards' quartermasters, a constituency not famous for warmth, refer to the type as "the reasonable one."

Capabilities
The B-model is the metronome — and, with zero apologies from anyone at Memphis Motive Works, a copy of the Awesome. Three PPCs, twenty-eight heat sinks, no jump jets, no ammunition, no drama: when MMW's engineers went looking for the perfect expression of the March's energy doctrine, they found that Technicron had already built it, and saw no reason to be original about a solved problem. Asked at the 3021 trade unveiling whether the IIB wasn't simply an Awesome with a Memphis accent, the MMW program lead is recorded as replying, "Yes. You're welcome." The result puts a PPC volley downrange every ten seconds from the first minute of a battle to the last with essentially nothing to resupply and very little to break, and it is the variant most beloved of the Dominion rotation, where garrisons measure endurance in months. Crews call it the Maul. The Maul does one thing. The Maul is still doing it.

Deployment
The Battleaxe II anchors the assault companies of the TriStar Guards — the 21st Morven Grenadiers field it in battalion strength and consider the A-model a personality test — and equips the triple-system militias, the Dominion rotation garrisons, and, in modest export numbers, corporate and mercenary customers the sales office describes as "vetted" and everyone else describes as "friends of friends."

History
The Battleaxe's development belongs to the furious decade: chartered under the Rearmament Edition in the 3010s, unveiled across 3020–3021, and blooded before it was three years in service. Battleaxes fought the length of the Tortuga Campaign, and the type's defining image remains the gun line at Tortuga City — B-models firing in rotation through all ninety days of the Ledger Barrage's overwatch, a duty the crews involved described as boring in the way lighthouses are boring. The Fourth Succession War and the Clan era confirmed the pattern: not the fastest assault, not the hardest-hitting, but the one that is always there, always armed, and always talking. The most famous hull in the fleet is Receipt, a Ledger Barrage veteran still serving with the 3rd Lackland Regulars, its left torso painted with 25,920,000 in small numerals; its succession of pilots are forbidden by regimental tradition from explaining the figure to anyone who hasn't earned the story. Captain Renata "Sixteen" Okonjo of the 21st, the March's most decorated Tomahawk lance commander, earned her callsign at the Gate Run support operations by expending exactly her full load, scoring with every volley, and radioing the Wing that she was "out of opinions."

Type: Battleaxe II
Technology Base: Inner Sphere
Tonnage: 80

BTL-AX80A - 7.06 million C-bills - 24 Single Heat Sinks - ↓ Battleaxe II BTL-AX80A.mtf

Weapons and Ammo	Location	Critical	Tonnage
PPC	Left Arm	3	7
Medium Laser	Left Arm	1	1
PPC	Right Arm	3	7
Medium Laser	Right Arm	1	1
Medium Laser	Left Torso	1	1
Medium Laser	Left Torso	1	1
Medium Laser	Left Torso	1	1
Medium Laser	Right Torso	1	1
Medium Laser	Right Torso	1	1
Medium Laser	Right Torso	1	1

BTL-AX80B - 6.60 million C-bills - 28 Single Heat Sinks - ↓ Battleaxe II BTL-AX80B.mtf

Weapons and Ammo	Location	Critical	Tonnage
PPC	Right Torso	3	7
PPC	Left Arm	3	7
PPC	Left Torso	3	7

BTL-AX80C - 7.00 million C-bills - 16 Single Heat Sinks - ↓ Battleaxe II BTL-AX80C.mtf

Weapons and Ammo	Location	Critical	Tonnage
Medium Laser	Left Torso	1	1
Medium Laser	Left Torso	1	1
Medium Laser	Left Torso	1	1
LRM 15	Right Torso	3	7
LRM 15	Left Torso	3	7
LRM 15	Left Arm	3	7
Ammo LRM-15 x4	LT	4	4
Ammo LRM-15 x2	RT	2	2