TME-84 Juggernaut Heavy BattleMech

STATISTICS

OVERVIEW

    The TME-84 Juggernaut was a product of its designer's school pride.   A surprisingly successful junior of Lloyd Memorial High School (Erlanger, Kentucky, North America, Earth) doodled this 'Mech sometime in 3000, designed it, and submitted the design plans to TME Industries.  A capable Panzermensch, TME gave the kid a contract and proceeded to mass-produce the Juggernaut for sale in the BattleTech S/TS.  The kid now gets a hefty proportion of sales (rumored to be over ten percent) in royalties for the Juggernaut planform.

CAPABILITIES

    The TME-84 Juggernaut was designed around the mascot of LMHS.   Generally the planform of some Greek warrior, it has some nasty pointers that puts even Greek heroes to shame.  A rapid-fire 10-class autocannon in the right arm provides the brunt of the Juggernaut's firepower, while a long-range missile 10-rack can strike from a distance and a short-range missile 6-rack supports close assaults.  A machine gun in the left arm can dispose of pesky infantry.  Being more reliant on ammunition than most TME designs, it is equipped with second-generation Cellular Ammunition Storage Equipment to protect against ammunition explosions.

    After the TME-84 was well into production, the student responsible for designing it was working on Juggernotes (the LHMS literary magazine) when he decided to actually figure out what a "Juggernaut" was.  The dictionary gave the usual "large, unmovable force" crap--the school's fight song said that much.  But why was Juggernaut, a proper noun, used to denote such a mundane idea?

    In The Columbia Encyclopedia, Third Edition, With Illustrations (Including 1967 Supplement:  Record of Events 1963-1967), which the student picked up at a clearing-out of the school library, defined Juggernaut thusly on page 1,101:

"Juggernaut, India: see PURI"

    Alright, flip a few hundred pages onward... lessee... Puri... Puri... page 1745... purgatory... Puri!

"town"... blah blah blah... "The life in the town centers around the cult of Juggernaut (Jaganath), a form of the Krishna incarnation of Vishnu.   This cult, unique in HINDUISM, has no caste distinctions.  The images of Juggernaut and his sister and brother repose within a vast temple compound.   Every summer each statue is mounted on an enormous temple cart and dragged by hundreds of pilgrims to a summer home a mile distant.  Although pilgrims have hurled themselves to death beneath the wheels of the cart, this act, contrary to popular belief, is not part of the ritual."

    Alright, so Juggernaut is a form of an incarnated Hindu god, whose cult centers around a giant cart with big wheels and a hell of a lot of inertia.  Therefore, a "large, immovable force."  Then, if Juggernaut is Hindu, why is the school mascot Greek?

    Looking at a map, the curious junior found the tiny dot of Puri in the far eastern regions of India.  There was no way that Alexander the Great made it that far through the malarial mosquitos and indiginous Indians.  A quick glance at a map of the holdings of the Alexandrian Empire proved this notion.   The junior called one of his friends and asked him what he thought.  All sorts of humorous ideas came about, such as putting a bendi (that little mark that Hindu women have on their foreheads) on all of the pictures of the Juggernaut logo at school.  In the end, a conclusion was reached.

    Whoever came up with it was pretty stupid.

Drawing Board Stats for the TME-84 Juggernaut

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