V2.00? BHunter Light Support TankIIC 0 &CCAPA?GL 005 4 3 1 5T !   (Unknown)7 (Unknown)= (Unknown)| The Hunter is a popular tank produced by Defiance Industries. Defiance is also a well-known manufacturer of types of weapons, and its I i have even created o new heavy tanks, the Rommel and the Patton. As its name makes clear, the Hunter Light Support Tank is a support vehicle. Like most support vehicles, the Hunter is not equipped to last in a stand-up fight. It does not, therefore, operate out in the open amid the heavy fighting, but remains behind in sheltering terrain to provide the battlefield commander with indirect fire support. The Hunter is designed to be a cheap, effective combat vehicle that an army can use as backup in case it needs covering fire in order to pull out of combat. Equipped with the heaviest long-range support weapons available, it can carry out this function very well. After a time, the Hunter became a fairly steady seller for Defiance Industries. New Hunters are still found in many armies in the Inner Sphere.  The Hunter's large missile load makes it an extremely effective support vehicle. As Defiance does not produce the huge long-range missle rack that the tank requires, the battle-proven FarFire Maxi served instead. The FarFire Maxi is the best support weapon available, and is used on any different vehicles. The rack is mounted in the popular"missle-box" style toward the rear of the vehicle, facing forward. This allows the Hunter to fire over defensive barriers without exposing itself to enemy fire. The Zippo Flamer is mounted as a purely defensive weapon, and is used only to set fires to deter pursuers when the tank is retrating from a battle. In fact, the flamer is normaly used only as a cookfire for the vehicle crew. The FarFire's extreme range usually keeps Hunter tanks from ever getting close enough to need their flamers in battle. The TharHes Mini-Talk and the TharHes AGART are not the Hunter's original targeting and tracking systems. Months after the first few hundred tanks were sold, a problem in the power link-ups caused the comm gear to surge and bum out The problem turned out to be in the tracking system rather than in the communications system, and so Defiance began installing the TharHes AGART Tracking System. The only problem with this replacement was that some crewmembers of the original Hunters complained when they could no longer patch their communications gear through the tracking system to receive various clandestine television stations.  The Hunter is well-known for the part it played in the Battle for Halstead Station. At one point during that famous fight, several units of Hunters on both sides squared off on the outskirts of a battle in progress and began to pound each other's troops to pieces. When the battle was over, only the Hunters remained. The two Hunter commanders, each realizing that he could not win a long-range fight, met in the middle of the war-torn field, shook hands, and fought hand-to-hand to determine the winner. Both commanders were knocked unconscious at about the sane time. Meanwhile, in another part of the Halstead Station battle, a group of five Davion Hunters moved into position on five different hillsides around an area that Kurita was using as a holding point for its damaged 'Mechs. The Hunters on the far north hill opened fire with three salvoes. The missles, firing at optimum range, created havoc among the 'Mechs. Though not at full fighting capability, the Kurita 'Mechs slowly moved to attack the unseen marauders to the north. After the force had moved 20 meters, the Hunter to the northwest immediately fire. Once again confused, the damaged 'Mechs changed course in their sluggish approach toward the most obvious enemy. This time, a new enemy fired. Every time the 'Mechs moved in a new direction in response to the attacks, it eventually wore down both their 'Mechs' capacities and their pilots' nerves. Wounded and rattled, the Kurita MechWarriors eventually ejected from their battered 'Mechs in a show of surrender to forces. The Hunter commander permitted the warriors to walk away from the battlefield, but without letting them leam the identity of their conquers. By appropriating these Kurita 'Mechs, the Hunter commander turned the tide of this major battle in favor of Davion. Had those 'Mechs been repaired in time, later analysis showed that Kurita would have won the day.    6Source: 3026 TRO Entered by Larry "Highball" LeslieDefiance Industries Hesperus IIMagna StarSlab/5.5TharHes Mini-Talk TharHes AGART[ none ]