Neo-Jovian Mecha Recognition Guide

SolFed

Solar Federation Space Force

Iolaus A2

Primary Operator: SFSF
Role: mass production orbital

Fixed Armament

• 2 linear gun (head)
• 1 beam saber (right hip)
• 3-slot grenade rack (left hip)

Notes
The Iolaus is the Solar Federation's current front line mass production mobile suit and of all its myriad variants, the SFSF's orbital use Iolaus A2 variants are the most common. A well designed, well rounded and perhaps most importantly, technically mature unit, its performance in all key metrics is at least equal if not superior to any opposing force it is likely to encounter in significant numbers.

Other

• Iolaus A3

Solar Federation Army/Airforce

Hylas B7C

Notes
Getting acquisitions approved is a bureaucratic hassle, especially for the politicially less influential Army and Airforce. Refits and reconstructions need far less paperwork even when they wind up costing more. Through this principle, the SFAA has kept the venerable Hylas on as its primary war machine among its far flung Verge formations. Almost three decades removed from the original, the combat performance of these upgrades cannot be discounted and they are rightly considered 2.5th generation mobile suits. To many an engineering recruit's dismay however, many of these suits do in fact have frames dating back to mid-System War Hylas production runs and their maintenance has been described as a combination of hemorrhoids and exam crunch time.

Iolaus B

Primary Operator: SFAA
Role: mass production terrestrial

Fixed Armament

• 2 modular mission pod hardpoint (head)
• 1 beam saber (right hip)
• 3-slot grenade rack (left hip)
• more hardpoints!

Notes
Long relegated to second fiddle when it came to its share of the military acquisitions budget, the planetary wing of the the SolFed military has been acquiring its own B and C variant Iolauss for terrestrial and atmospheric operating environments. The B variant is equipped to handle a wide variety of terrain and gravitational conditions and is inherently a tougher suit than the A variants as it is almost never issued with a shield. Head mounted linear cannons are also replaced with modular mission pod hardpoints (usually direct-fire cannon armament on one side and something else in the other).

Solar Federation Navy/Marines

Iolaus D

Primary Operator: SFNM
Role: mass production amphibious/gas giant

Notes
The longest Iolaus variant in coming and by far the most sophisticated from an engineering perspective, the Iolaus D goes far above and beyond the mundane requirement of operation in Earthlike waters. Featuring robust environmental controls, radialogical and electromagnetic flux hardening and a condensed graviton pressure balance system, Iolaus D can operate in incredibly hostile environments that have nevertheless proven militarily important in the past, such as the upper layers of gas giants. Its main fixed armament are shoulder mounted heavy pods for missiles or torpedoes.

Verge Polities

League of Outer Stars

Type 11 Raptor

Primary Operator: League
Role: mass production mobile doll

Notes
As a mobile doll, the Type 11 Raptor lacks a cockpit or any of the protections and systems associated with keeping a human alive in space. The balance of empty space is filled with additional energy cell capacity and propellant tanks. In combat, the AI makes full use of its ability to sustain high G forces constantly making it notoriously difficult to target with certain weapons systems. In flight, the Raptor's unusual silhouette is easily recognizeable and is a result of its ability to fold neatly into a roughly triangular package. League ships typically launch groups of six at a time from hexagonal linear catapults.

Jovian

Space Independence Alliance

MS-12 Virago II

Notes
The quintessential mecha of the early System War, the Virago II was by far the Space Independence Alliance's most heavily produced mobile suit and eventually offshot into dizzying surfeit of variations and special purpose units. Thanks to its fundamental robustness, reliability and maintenance procedures purportedly less complex than the assembly instructions of its highest grade modelling kit, it remains in service on various minor worlds of the Verge.

MS-17 Knightress

Notes
A late war mass production unit, the Knightress was rushed into action in the aftermath of Saturn's defection when the strategic situation turned decisively against the Space Independence Alliance. Equipped with an integral chest-mounted beam cannon, it handily overpowered any of the Hylas variants then in service. The unit naturally proved too little too late and most of them were destroyed in action. Those that remain operational in the Verge generally have little problem finding pilots however and the lineage of the design itself has been sustained over the years by various iterations of Neo-Jove.

Other

• MS-10 Virago - The first mass production mobile suit deployed in numbers but was considered a second line unit even at the outbreak of the System War. Examples are to be found in various museums and junkyards.