Once, long ago, Catapults were beautiful Battlemechs, and looked like this.
Then, a Dark Age overtook the Inner Sphere. Catapults as mankind had once known them were destroyed in a terrible cataclysm.
Their original launchers were lost, never to be seen again. Instead, newer, less awesome launchers were mounted on Catapult 'mechs. For a few, the launchers were merely clunky and ugly; the larger, uglier C4 boxes.
And while the C4 launchers were chunky and ugly (with hatches that did not open far enough) and made the Catapult the object of derisive nicknames, like Fatapult, Dumbo, and Cletus the Slack-Doored Yokel, there was worse to come.
For some Mechwarriors drove the A1 version of the Catapult. Once the platform of the Mighty Splatcat, the A1 had been brought low by Ghost Heat. For a brief, shining moment, it had ascended to the level of a Champion Battlemech ...
And then the horrible fall. For the A1 would never again have a decent target profile or small missile boxes to protect it's only weapons. Lo, the A1 was cursed with the fat C4 launchers.
But this is a Dark Age of Mankind, and We Cannot Have Nice Things.
And thus the VCR tubes were inflicted upon the A1 and C4, and the Earlobes, and the Extra VCR.
(And even the cool Buccaneer skull-and-crossbones became kind of derpy)
And there was much moaning and gnashing of teeth, and the Catapult pilots dressed in sackcloth and covered their heads with ashes, for while their 'mechs had indeed gotten a few nice upgrades (really on the K2 torso weapons) the beautiful lines of their Catapults had been ruined.
And the Mechwarriors of the Online fell into a Dark Age.
Edited by Malleus011, 07 November 2013 - 06:43 PM.