Like the Blitz Iguana, the Blitz Jäger was a variant born in the darkest hours of the War of the Alliance. By TN 1913, many of the latest Gear models had been destroyed or damaged and, since the manufacturing capabilities of both hemispheres were in bad shape, replacements barely trickled in. To compensate, and use efficiently what resources were left, older models were refitted and sent to the front lines as backups. Naturally, the Jäger was, with the Hunter, one of the first machines to benefit from such a treatment. The quickest refits involved simple changes in armament, perhaps enhanced by extra armor plates on the lower legs and the back, or extensions to the skirt armor.
Some machines, in service in particularly dangerous zones, received makeshift armored jackets. The Blitz Jäger was just such a modification, intended as a mobile armored launch platform for a deadly ATML-1 anti-tank missile. The missile launcher was placed on the hard-point normally used for the Vogel-6 rocket pod, necessitating the latter’s removal. A need for launch stability also required the installation of a governor that reduced the Gear’s maximum ground speed. The standard HLB-16 antipersonnel grenade launcher was also omitted at first, but reappeared later in the war when Blitz Jägers began to find themselves in combat against enemy infantry.
The ATML-1’s powerful warhead and terminal laser guidance made it a deadly weapon against the hovertanks of the Colonial Expeditionary Force. The Jäger could only carry a single missile, however, gaining the Gear the unfortunate nickname of “one shot wonder.” The ATML-1 was, and is, also an expensive weapon to produce and, with time and attrition, many machines found themselves with a weapon load that was mismatched at best. A tragic example of this was a Blitz wreck discovered in the middle of the Baja battlefield, surrounded by destroyed hovertanks, but still holding on to a 60 mm tank cannon converted into a makeshift giant anti-tank rifle. Since the war the Blitz has found a place in many assault and anti-armor cadre and is respected by most soldiers piloting it.
