Strum Wealh, on 06 March 2015 - 08:04 PM, said:
"Diana returned fire with a blast from her extended-range PPC, knocking out the Centurion's center-torso medium laser." - Falcon Guard, ch. 25
"Firing her PPC, she watched as the bolt of unbound lighting hit paydirt. The Vindicator rocked backward, then went up in an explosion so massive it almost took out a pair of lighter 'Mechs." - - Falcon Guard, ch. 32
It also possess an unknown number of "medium lasers" (which, in ch. 32 of Falcon Guard, Diana uses to decapitate a ComStar 'Mech; "They shot off an arm from one of the ComStar 'Mechs, giving MechWarrior Diana a chance to fire with all her medium lasers straight into the cockpit of the other 'Mech."). However, it is not specified as to whether these are CERMLs or CMPLs.
Chapter 37 of Falcon Guard, where the unit is escaping by having all of their 'Mechs jump to the middle of a makeshift bridge, then make a second jump to complete the crossing, indicated that all of the Falcon Guard 'Mechs (including Diana's Masakari) have Jump Jets.
Moreover, ch. 29 of Falcon Guard indicates that the river to be crossed (the Prezno River) " is some two hundred-fifty meters wide at its narrowest crossing", meaning that a 'Mech would have to be able to jump at least ~125 meters in order to cross in two bounds - meaning that all of the Falcon Guard 'Mechs would need to mount at least four (4) Jump Jets each (the extra five (5) meters can be fudged, or perhaps the 250-meter estimate for the river's width is off by 10 meters...). The same chapter also indicates that Aidan ordered all of the Falcon Guards' 'Mechs to be outfitted with Jump Jets.
Now, we can combine this with what we know about the Masakari's fixed equipment & pod space:
- Both legs are filled with fixed CDHS.
- The Left Torso is filled with two Engine crits, a quartet of fixed CDHS, and two fixed Ferro-Fibrous crits.
- The Right Torso houses two Engine crits, one fixed CDHS, two fixed Ferro-Fibrous crits, and the Targeting computer, leaving up to six (6) free crits in that location
- The Center Torso has two free crits.
- The Head crit is filled with a fixed Ferro-Fibrous crit.
- Each arm houses two fixed Ferro-Fibrous crits, leaving up to eight (8) free crits in each arm.
- The base Masakari has 32.50 tons of pod space available.
With four JJs (two in the CT, and two in the RT), Diana's Masakari would have 28.50 tons of pod space remaining & 4 crits remaining for its TC (allowing it to accommodate up to 20 tons of direct-fire weaponry).
One possible usage of the remaining pod space (28.50 tons) is to have one CERPPC (as the novel descriptions seem to imply that Diana only has a single (ER)PPC weapon on her Masakari), a LRM-10 + 1 ton of ammo (from the prime config; it helps to address that pesky half-ton), a septet of CMPLs, a 4-ton/4-crit TC, and two extra CDHS.
The CMPLs would all go in one arm, with the other arm holding the CERPPC, the LRM launcher & its ammo, and the extra DHS.
Seven CMPLs firing at once would generate 28 units of heat, while the proposed loadout for Diana's Masakari would have 22 CDHS, for an effective total of 44 units of cooling - it would be more than enough to handle making the salvo described in the novel.
Further, we can assume that Diana just never used the LRM launcher, for whatever reason(s).
Thoughts?
I missed you, Strum.