Jager

Specifications
Use	General purpose Gear
Production Code	OACS-01M/SU
Manufacturer	Territorial Arms
Height	4.3 meters
Speed	Walker: 41 kph SMS: 74 kph

The oldest and most basic of the Gears fielded by Southern forces, the Jäger started its existence as a shameless copy of the United Mercantile Federation’s Hunter. Indeed, Republican commandos stole a Hunter prototype and engineers created a near-exact copy for operations at the end of the Southern War which created the Allied Southern Territories. At first, the only significant differences between the Hunter and Jäger were the Southern machine’s rounded armor plates — designed to improve the armor's sturdiness to shocks, collisions and enemy fire — and a slightly improved sensor/communications head pod. Over the years, the two “cousins” have remained sign-posts of military competition between the poles, having become locked in an arms race of their own. Indeed, with every minor adjustment made to the Hunter, Southern engineers are ordered to make a matching change in the Jäger, and vice versa.

The most evident example of this came in the TN 1850s when the Jäger was overhauled into its “Alpha” configuration, leading to a similar redesign of the Hunter, which was dubbed the Mark II. The Jäger has undergone several other rounds of modernization and is currently in its “Epsilon” configuration. All the changes since the 1850s, however, have been relatively minor and most technicians still refer to the current design as the Jäger Alpha.

The Jäger’s weaponry is a nearly-identical match to that of the Northern Hunter. The main armament is a PR-25 autocannon supplemented by a Vogel-6 rocket pod. An HLB-16 grenade launcher provides anti-infantry defense, while hand grenades and an HHVB-3 vibroknife provide close-combat punch. The internal systems of the Jäger were originally designed by the engineers of the Republican Army’s Anthropomorphic Battle Vehicle Center and were purchased outright by Territorial Arms in TN 1703. The standard sensor package developed for the Alpha refit (and still in use) is a TA-StarSight integrated omnicamera system featuring automatic target tracking, layered light amplification and thermographics as well as picture-in-picture zoom and identification overlay.

Usage

Due to its long history, durability and versatility, the Jäger has seen far more action than any other Southern combat Gear model. From the beginning, it has been used as one of the most readily identifiable tools of Republican military might. In the Southern War that subjugated the member-leagues of the Allied Southern Territories, it was special strike teams of Jägers which broke the stalemate that had stalled Republican ambitions. Soon after, the Jäger would face its first Gear to Gear combat as the AST and the United Mercantile Federation fought over influence and resources in the Westridge Range area during the so-called Merchant War. By the time of this latter conflict, Territorial Arms had spewed out hundreds of the new war machines and the South was able to match Mercantile forces Gear for Gear and win. The tactics developed during the early deployment of the Jäger — most notably their use in dedicated units with highly trained pilots — remain part of standard Southern military doctrine to this day.

Of course, the Jäger has faced competition from newer and more sophisticated machines over its two-and-a-half centuries of existence. Other general purpose Gears such as the Rattlesnake, Copperhead and Desert Viper have challenged its as the South's standard trooper, while an ever-increasing number of specialized models such as the Iguana or Black Adder have limited the Jäger’s use in many fields in which it was once the weapon of choice. The Jäger, however, refuses to cede its ground altogether. None of the machines that have been designed to supplant it have been able to match its simplicity and ease of production, guaranteeing that the Jäger will outlast most of its “replacements.” Even the elite Black Mamba is likely to remain too expensive and complex to displace the Jäger as a standard trooper. The durability of the Jäger was proven during the dark cycles of the War of the Alliance. When Southern production facilities were crippled by orbital bombing, the Jäger made a powerful resurgence. Not only were there countless Jägers already in the field, but it was far more efficient to use the remaining factories to produce large numbers of Jägers instead of a smaller number of high-performance Gears like the Sidewinder.

Variants

• Flame Jager
• Blitz Jager
• Longbow Jager
• Dart Jager
• Stripped-Down Jager
• Para Jager

Media

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  The original Jäger, modified from a stolen Hunter Mk I prototype.

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  The overhauled Jäger Alpha

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  Jäger head casting.

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External links

• Jager Miniature - DP9 Store