Light - Venom

This new addition to the Hilltoppers came to the unit in such a fashion that it might as well have been giftwrapped with a large bow adorning its torso.

The Hilltoppers had been on-station in service to Comstar in a garrison/cadre contract when the planet was assaulted by raiders purported to be from the Draconis Combine. While the enemy raiders did indeed field a number of Draconis-associated 'Mech designs, all save this one have been in production and combat long enough to diffuse into the hands of other powers. The mystery surrounding the raiders was compounded by the fact that their transport lifted off apparently abandoning the ground forces. Several weeks passed with little incident, until the raiders encountered a Hilltoppers patrol. That patrol was successful in repelling the raiding elements and in capturing two of their BattleMechs. The pilots were both dead by suicide in the cockpits. Backtracking the raiders led the Hilltoppers to the enemy base of operations. Preceded by their aerospace fighters, whose suppressing fire took the fight from the enemy, the Hilltoppers captured the base without any battle. The enemy was nowhere to be found. Left behind, however, was a significant cache of materiel, including this Venom in pristine condition.

Suspecting a trap, the 'Mech was hauled back to the Hilltoppers base strapped to the bed of a recovery truck and inspected outside the base proper. Finding nothing wrong, but intrigued by a configuration of the 'Mech they had never even heard of, the Hilltopper techs determined that one of the installed heat sinks was superfluous. Removing that component freed enough tonnage to install a flamer, though cramming its control circuitry underneath the cockpit somewhat reduced the available space there.
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This mini was something of a pain for me to get good photos of, and I'm not totally satisfied with the results. These, however, seem to be the best I can manage. I modded the mini to the -9KC stats with a Hilltopper twist. The upper left torso laser was removed, and the flamer to the head was added.