TME-50 Grendel Experimental Frigate WarShip

STATISTICS

OVERVIEW

    The TME-50 was the product of a diseased yet brilliant minds.   A Human engineer was resting in the employee lounge of the TME Industries base in the BattleTech S/TS, mindlessly watching a fiber-optic globe.  Noting the tiny shafts and bright points of light wafting in the breeze of the circulating air, she rolled around comparisons of naval and conventional weapons.  Naval weapons are big, and powerful.   Conventional weapons are small, and weak.  On a whim, she divided the damage potential of each weapon by its tonnage.  Conventional weapons had a higher quotient than capital weapons, meaning they were more efficient.  With the introduction of superchargers extending the range of standard weaponry, conventionally-armed vehicles became feasable.

    Yet the limitations of BattleTech fire-control systems prevented large arrays of conventional weapons replacing the naval guns.  Doing a bit more math, she noted that, even with the expansive cost in mass of fire-control added in, she could do better than a naval weapon.  Turning back to the fiber-optic globe, in it she saw a spherical warship with a thousand streams of lasers pulsing out.

    Thus was the TME-50 Grendel born.  The engineer designed the general planform herself and then got herself transferred to Marketing to sell her idea to the BattleTech Space/Time Sphere.  All the potential customers seemed interested but cautious.  If it would work so well, she was told, why hadn't it been done before?   The general response she recieved was if she could prove its effectiveness, it would be quite the seller.

DEPLOYMENT

    This intrepid engineer was able to convince TME to produce a prototype, the WZSS Lightstorm (as it was a military vessel, it had to be crewed and commissioned by the Weirdo Zone Exploratory Services  rather than a civilian corporation).  The Lightstorm slipped its moorings and was quickly teleported into the BattleTech S/TS.  Equipped with twelve Peregrin and twelve Nazgul AeroSpace fighters, the Lightstorm jumped into the Tukayyid Truce Zone and challenged any ship of 600,000 to 800,000 tons  on June 3, 3057.  This challenge was quickly responded to by the Phoenix, a Clan Jade Falcon Aegis-class 745,000-ton heavy cruiser.

    The Phoenix's trueborn commander, Star General Rax, informed the WZISS Lightstorm that it was in violation of several treaties with the usual "freeborn/whoreson scum" insults.  WZES Captain Dolan responded, informing Rax where to shove his insults and to generally bring it on as the Lightstorm launched its fighters.

    The Phoenix fired a salvo of Shark naval missiles at extended range, missing by several meters.  The Lightstorm sped to full 4G acceleration and stayed to the Phoenix's poorly-armed front.  The Phoenix's ten fast light fighters engaged the twenty-four strong bulk of Peregrins and Nazguls and were quickly destroyed.  As the Lightstorm closed with the slower Aegis-class, its fighter force quickly eliminated the Clanners' slow, heavy fighters lacking support.  The occassional Shark missile detonated on the Lightstorm's armor but caused no great damage.  At long range, the Lightstorm fired its two-hundred front and fore-right extended-range particle projection cannons.  A hundred of them slammed into the Phoenix's fore-left, shredding the armor and destroying its powerful naval autocannon.

    The Lightstorm and the Phoenix closed.   Lacking fighter support, the Phoenix could not protect itself from the Nazguls and Peregrins repeatedly strafing its hull.  The Phoenix fired its powerful nose naval autocannon at the Lightstorm's nose, which shrugged off the powerful blow.  The Lightstorm then retaliated with two hundred particle projection cannons, a hundred heavy rapid-fire autocannon, and a hundred large pulse lasers.  The rain of death completely gutted the front half of the Phoenix, which tumbled uncontrollably for a minute before the hyperdrive exploded in a massive gout of plasma and shrapnel.

    Yet the battle was not over.  Two Clan Ghost Bear Congress-class 760,000-ton frigates, the Blizzard and the Tundra, also heard the challenge and jumped into the arena.  Captain Dolan patiently informed the Ghost Bear trueborn captain that the Lightstorm had just destroyed the Jade Falcon Phoenix and was prepared to take out the the Blizzard and Tundra as well.  The Ghost Bears predictably ignored the message and launched their fighters.  The Lightstorm's front had taken a beating from the Phoenix's naval autocannon, so Dolan made sure that his well-armored sides faced the Ghost Bears, and, surprisingly, recalled his fighters.  The twenty Ghost Bear fighters proceeded unhindered to what seemed to be a defenseless target.  Suddenly, six hundred weapons opened fire and instantaneously vaporized the Clan fighters in a storm of light.   Captain Dolan politely asked the Ghost Bear vessels to surrender.  They did not, and closed in on the silent and stationary Lightstorm from both sides.

    At long range, the Lightstorm's particle projection cannons exchanged fire with the Ghost Bears' light naval autocannon.  The Lightstorm shook, but held under the barrage of heavy shells, and the Bears' armor flayed under the energy cannon.  At five hundred kilometers, the final climax exploded.  The Lightstorm fired every weapon in every hardpoint except the nose and aft ones.   One-thousand-two-hundred weapons blazed into the two Clan vessels, enough firepower to demolish both the Congress-classes' armor five times.  As would be expected after such a barrage, both vessels were only twisted, wasted, holed versions of their former selves.  The Lightstorm thrusted out of the path of the empty shelves, which subsequently collided and exploded.

    After this altercation, the Lightstorm jumped to the nearest repair facility, the Lyran port of Crystal Harbor.  As technicians quickly repaired the unfamiliar ship, Captain Dolan explained to a shocked Lyran Naval officer that he had just destroyed an Aegis-class cruiser and two Congress-class destroyers and had the combat film to prove it.

    The subsequent word-of-mouth campaign has made the TME-50 Grendel TME Industries' most popular WarShip.  Why is it called the Grendel rather than the Lightstorm, after the prototype as the engineer wanted it?  The driving force behind the Grendel was its designer, Grendel Wilkonsen.  To honor her tenacity, TME named the design for her against her wishes.

VARIANTS

    To make amends to the Clans for destroying three of their prized WarShips, TME also produces a Clan version of the Grendel (TME-50C) which is predictably even better than the original.  The TME-50-A has the supercharger technology of the WZISS Lightstorm.

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