V2.00BRommelXL-20 >EDDA@?GH 010 2 2 5TE *L22 A Pontiac 100` Delta Dart9 Magna Mk IIn the early 3050s, an industrial revolution had begun to run through the Taurian Concordat. By the mid 3050s Vandenberg Mechanized Industries and Taurus Territorial Industries had shown the greatest expansion into the brave new world of modern technology, with high profile designs starting to come out of their factories. Those designs were beginning to overshadow the older but still serviceable weapons of war, a trend that Pinard Protectorates Limited found completely unacceptable. They built the best hover tanks, the best main line battle tank, the best heavy BattleMech, and the best light BattleMech in the entire Taurian Concordat. But sales were still dropping due to slick ad campaigns and buzz over the new technology that supposedly made better and more heavily armored BattleMechs to compete with them. Something had to be done soon or PPL would risk a heavy loss of face and profits in the Concordat. They considered upgrading one of their BattleMechs, like the Marauder, but decided that was not an optimal usage of resources. Any updated Marauder would compete squarely with the Taurus Territorial Industries' new Marauder after all, and they still had enough sales from militias and low-income mercenaries to keep that line moving. They decided instead to upgrade the Rommel. Since winning the right to build that main line battle tank in the early 3020s, the Rommel had become the standard bearer of Taurian tanks. Heavily armored, heavily armed, and capable of running for years with only minimal maintenance, it personified the Concordat armored corps. And the only tank that competed with it was the Magistracy-built Manticore. So they began looking at ways to upgrade the battle tank, hoping to bring about a new revolution in sales.Their original ideas for upgrading the tank mainly centered on improving its survivability. Ferro-fibrous armor and CASE did wonders but did not capture the "wow factor" that Pinard Protectorates Limited knew they would need. But any "wow factor" would require heavy investment and the upgrade budget was running low. With the other flashy designs being sold, they simply didn't have enough money flowing in. When a group of investors asked to purchase the flagging J. Edgar factory line lock, stock, barrel, and license PPL jumped at the chance for the massive infusion of cash they needed. With money in hand, they began looking around for ways to make the Rommel better than any other main line battle tank in Taurian service. They finally decided on retrofitting it to use an extra-light engine. But to do that they needed support from outside the Concordat. They chose to approach HildCo Interplanetary of St. Ives, builder of some of the most famous assault BattleMechs in history, and the extra-light engine to power one of them. Months of negotiations that included the St. Ives and Taurian governments resulted in a convoluted agreement that resulted in HCI's support to design and build a new extra-light engine for the Rommel on Perdition. Within months of that time the Concordat and Compact signed a full trade alliance with each other, and many credit the negotiations with PPL as one of the reasons for its existence. With the negotiations finished, PPL moved on to produce their first run of prototypes and sent them to testing. Though there were a large number of bugs in the new Rommel-XL, they proved superior to other tanks as wished. Able to outmaneuver their opponents, the newer and swifter Rommel-XL could easily get into range to use its massive main cannon to destroy them. Other variants of the Rommel-XL, most of which had long been in use in the Concordat, also showed themselves off well, and the Rommel-XL was approved for full production in early 3057. Faster and more heavily armored than the old Rommels, PPL sold the entire first run before the first Rommel-XL even came off the factory line. They had achieved the "wow factor" they wanted and the money began to pour in.In March of 3058 a major pirate raid hit Belle Isle, where the Second Taurian Lancers had recently received a full company of Rommel-XLs. Coming from the Haven Star Cluster, the pirates came in heavy and ready to fight, targeting the Lancer battalion for destruction. Not anticipating such a tactic, the Lancer commander arrayed his BattleMechs in a skirmish line designed to hold the pirates while the tanks flanked them. Instead the pirates smashed through the skirmish line and moved to trample the Lancer headquarters. Both the regimental and battalion leaders died under the pirate's feet, and the remaining Lancers retreated from the field of battle. The commander of the armor battalion soon pulled what remained of the BattleMech forces back together under her command and moved her tanks into a more rational position though. She then began using a lance of her Rommel-XLs to shell the pirates while the rest of her tanks moved out with the BattleMechs to deal with the pirates. For nearly two days the shelling and skirmishing continued, with damaged Rommel-XLs being pulled back to take over artillery bombardment duties to allow the fresh ones to move back out into the thick of battle and keep the pressure up. By the time the raid was over, the surviving pirates swore they had faced a battalion of some kind of super Rommels and Pattons, supported by other units. They never realized how few tanks they'd faced, or that they could have overrun the tank battalion if the capable commander had not kept them on the defensive as she had.The Rommel incorporates a never-before seen locking mechanism on its turret that holds it in place securely but allows it to be completely detached in less than ten minutes if the required tools and lifting equipment are available. Unlocking it from the inside of the tank takes only a few minutes with a few good wrenches and strong technicians, while a simple crane can lift the entire turret assembly off once that it done. Pinard Protectorates Limited produces a large number of turret assemblies with other weapons grids that they sell to purchasers of the Rommel-XL. This allows one of them to go into battle with one weapons profile, return to base, and fight less than an hour later with a completely different one. Not a true omnitank, the Rommel-XL can still provide for impressive customization options. Official alternate turret production includes a lighter autocannon similar to that used on the Lyran Patton tanks, with larger missile racks. Other variants are a pure long-range missile variant for fire support, a streak variant for short-range devastation, and two variants designed with a particle cannon or pulse laser to approximate the popular Manticore design. Finally, another variant is centered on a single Sniper artillery piece, making the Rommel-XL a mobile artillery projection platform. An opponent rarely knows what to expect upon hearing that a Rommel-XL will be fighting them.Colonel Kammie Andrews Andrews is one of the few armor commanders in the Taurian Defense Forces to command BattleMechs. Her leadership on Belle Isle pulled victory from the jaws of defeat and she has continued to prove her ability to lead in the months since. While she has not been given official command of the Second Taurian Lancers at this time, the MechWarriors have made their wishes on the matter clear to Marshal Calderon-Sims. She commands them. She seems to prefer the particle cannon variant of the Rommel-XL, as she commanded from a Manticore before accepting the new tank. Leading from the front and charging the pirates multiple times, she is most pleased with her new vehicle, and her crew. They survived a pitched battle with the pirates that the old Manticore did not.zAs part of the negotiated agreement to provide Pinard Protectorates Limited with the extra-light technology, PPL was obligated to sell fifty percent of its first run at a significant discount to the St. Ives Compact. Due to this, the Compact is currently the largest user of the new Rommel-XL, and have entire companies of them stationed on their border with the aggressive Capellan Confederation. In the Taurian Concordat only the richest prestige regiments can afford to purchase more than a handful of the expensive Rommel-XL, but they have proven to be worth their cost in battle against Davion, Liao, and pirate raiding forces. Pinard Protectorates LimitedPerdition / TC (PPL)Warner Durallex Heavy Special with CASE Neil 6000-xRCA Instatrac Mark XII9C:\Program Files\HeavyMetal\Vee\vehicles\Rommel XL-20.hm-