Eisenhorn — Roleplayer Guild

Thanks for the heads up, good to know indeed. Also finally got my cranked out, in other news, figured we could use an older, "wiser", head hanging around.

Name: 
Ansgar Staudinger

Age: 
48

Gender: 
Male

Appearance: 
Piloting Suit (Sealed against void exposure)

Casual Wear

Faction: 
N/A

Occupation: 
Freelance Mech Pilot

Production Model: 
Cromhill Industries Mk.IV Male Variant

Mech Nickname: 
Cú Chulainn

SAC-C Nickname: 
Scáthach

Owner: 
Ansgar Staudinger

- Technical Details -
The Cromhill Industries Mk. IV is a discontinued line of Mechs, Cromhill Industries now out of business, and was built early on in the production years of combat mechs once the initial problems were solved. Envisioned as a vanguard model, leading Lances and drawing fire, clearly influenced its construction and choices that departed from where Mech units would eventually find themselves, role wise. The Mk. IV is, even by contemporary standards, extremely armored to the point it affected an unmodified Mk. IV's mobility, something that contributed to its inevitable downfall from mainline use as more agile foes would make themselves known. Another problem that plagued pilots was the heat generation, the cockpit being uncontrolled atmosphere wise, forcing pilots to don specially designed coolant and void sealed suits when operating in atmosphere's that did not, or would not, support normal life operations. Critics quickly pointed out these countless flaws, ignoring what the few remaining Mk. IV owners would point out as strong points, and they remain a mostly forgotten point in history.

William Staudinger (Ansgar's Father) picked up a Mk. IV when he was in his mid teens, needing a cheap Mech and was willing to take risks with something seen as a failed experiment in Mech development. Dubbing the Mk. IV 'Cú Chulainn', William set about retrofitting a great deal throughout his life. Firstly was the installation of a SACC module, due to its original being stripped and installed elsewhere when mothballed. The SAC-C would develop into quite the matronly figure, with underlying viciousness and cold application of logic, though William would die before giving her a proper name. Next was the repairing and updating of the power plant, woefully underpowered for the weight class the Mk. IV fell into, utilizing the fact its power generator space was overly large for modern power plants, giving it a power plant that blew the Mk. IV's power problems out of the water and maintained an almost unreasonable surplus of energy. 'Cú Chulainn' was still slower than standard mechs, but it didn't risk overtaxing the system and burning out or shutting down the mech, and did improve its speed somewhat, but that would be like saying it went from a crawl to a walk.

Next on William's checklist was the control system, which currently uses a, albeit still outdated, manual control system that was more intuitive and easier on the pilot to use than its original, highly complex input systems. Entry to the cockpit still was through the back of the torso, pilot crawling past internal munitions racks and loaders along a claustrophobic path, narrow enough to prevent being able to turn around in, to haul themselves up into a, at a glance, cramped head cockpit. However, once settled in, everything was within extremely easy reach, making it rather easy to operate once actually online and moving. Other internals, including replaced servos, electronic suite upgrades, munitions and other systems required for effective operations meant that, outside of the externals, very little of the original Mk. IV existed by the time Ansgar Staudinger inherited the Mk. IV, which has seen most of his overhauls done in the weapons department instead as his father had kept the internals where they needed to be.

The Primary Armament on 'Cú Chulainn' is the prototype rail cannon, code named Gáe Bolg, on the right arm at the elbow joint. The weapon utilizes a variant ammo system that uses an internal magazine that slightly protrudes from the bottom of the weapon, and loads caseless ammo from loaders in the right side of the Mk. IV's body, eliminating the need for a means of ejecting spent casings. Second, as it is a rail weapon, it generates very little recoil though the spike in power draw does give it away. Being smoothbore, the weapon can and does maintain a small surplus of specialist rounds. The majority of its on board rounds are APDS, Armor Piercing Discarding Sabot, rounds that are designed for hunting other Mechs, Tanks, and typically anything with heavy armor. Also on board are several AP Incendiary shells, designed for follow up attacks against either softer targets, such as troop transports, or strikes against weak points in armor. Upon piercing armor, the shell ignites on board fuel and maximizes the spray of burning substance across anything that is within reach internally. Oddly, these shells are ineffective against ground targets due to the AP nature of the shells causing them to bury into the ground before deploying incendiary second stage, due to not being designed to deploy until impact.

Secondary armaments include its torso mounted missile rack, cover swinging open on hydraulics to expose five missiles at a time. Curiously, the original Mk. IV carried Surface to Air missiles in this rack, designed to fire upon incoming aircraft before they could engage the lance. However, once field tests concluded that the fact the missile rack was poorly located for anti air munitions (requiring the torso to be squared away with the incoming aircraft) most remaining Mk.IV units in service have replaced the missiles used. 'Cú Chulainn' utilizes missiles that are designed to cripple and disable hard targets at range, setting up shots from the Gáe Bolg by crippling motor functions (such as treads and leg motors), sensors, and other external modules that allow a hostile unit to function. 

Tertiary weapons reside on its left arm, the manipulator arm being reinforced and capable of engaging in close combat, grappling or striking against opponents should the need arise. More notable is the CQB module mounted on the external part of the 'forearm' of the left arm, which in fact use heat generated by the Mk. IV to provide an ignition source for the twin nozzled flamethrower housed in the forearm. While this is, obviously, intended as an anti infantry weapon, it can be used against emplacements and other hostile targets that have poor heat management.

Outside of weapons, the Mk. IV has a crude ECM suite, capable of protecting itself from external attacks. However, it lacked reliable means of disrupting missile attacks using electronic counter attacks against target locks, instead utilizing an older method. Deploying countermeasures such as Chaff (against any directed missiles via methods such as radar) and flares (against heat seeking weapons) give the Mk. IV a surprisingly flashy and distracting method of defense against guided weapons. Besides viewing ports in the head, the Mk. IV uses cameras spaced about the head, with backups elsewhere, providing a simulated 360 degree view that is designed to project directly onto screens inside the cockpit of the Mk. IV, allowing the pilot to look around and spot targets, with SAC-C assistance.

Personality:
Ansgar is a fairly relaxed soul, unflappable in the face of even the strictest or most hard headed of commanders, and finds it entertaining watching them needlessly freak out or lose their cool over the slightest thing going wrong. He is open to a fault, being blunt with anything that he says and having zero qualms saying it to their face as well. Having been around the block a couple times now, he lets experience and hard learned lessons show, never acting rashly since he rarely has anything to prove as far as he is concerned. Ansgar definitely enjoys a good fight, hunting down targets with a frightening amount of efficiency that isn't betrayed by his off duty nature of staying laid back and just relaxing. When it comes down to a fight, be it in his Mech, a bar brawl, or otherwise, he's a proponent of finishing things as fast as possible, meaning striking someone down in one blow and moving on. He also has no qualms facing death, making sure that he is at peace with his God every day he wakes up, in case its his last, and always has his affairs in order, simple as they are, just in case.

Background:
The Staudinger family used to be of some note several generations ago, a noble family in the Republics, but by the time of even Ansgar's father, William, this was a wistful dream at best for the more generously minded of those who still remembered their name at all. His father had already sold off pretty much anything remaining to the family name to buy one last Mech, a Mk. IV, and spent his waning years preparing it for his son, Ansgar. Ansgar was raised as a soldier, a pilot, to be fighting tooth and nail to survive to see the following day, and for his credit, he kept a pretty good humor about it. Ansgar would, and never will, speak ill of his father, who had equipped him for just that, to survive a lifetime of conflict. Ansgar would leave his father behind, per his wishes, vanishing to the stars and abandoning the Republics space completely, at the time a barely eighteen year old rookie taking his chances in the stars.

That was thirty years ago for the now aging man, a man who had seen warfare across enough planets that he has lost count and see fights on both sides of most any faction in conflict now. This has only tempered Ansgar, who continues arriving at one hotspot from the last, using a fair amount of his income to keep his ancient Mk. IV up and running, his oldest partner being his SAC-C, whom some associates jokingly refer to as Mrs. Staudinger, though he doesn't speak her name outside of when he is in the Mk. IV itself. Somewhat surprisingly is his continued lack of loyalty to any single cause, being sworn to no Liege or faction. This isn't because of anything like being unwelcome, he just has yet to find anyone he finds interesting enough to follow into warfare, the young princes and princesses of the current generation boring him a bit. So he wanders from fight to fight, keeping himself afloat, drifting with his Mech, his SAC-C, and living life as it approached him. 

Motivation(s):
Ansgar is, in the short term, looking for a good fight, whether by following a lord or lady or by freelancing, and to keep himself afloat. Preferably doing both at the same time, if at all possible. He expects to follow in his family steps and find himself in a no win situation, where he goes down swinging and takes as many of the poor fools facing him along as possible, and that suits him just fine, far as he is concerned. He ain't interested in getting old and fat on some farm, and passing away on his ass.
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