Mad Dog

Specifications
Use	Fire support Heavy Gear
Production Code	HACS-15MG-MP
Manufacturer	Western Armories
Height	3.9 meters
Speed	Walker: 30 kph SMS: 54 kph

The Mad Dog was one of the first outside attempts at creating a new model of Gear that could compete with the United Mercantile Federation’s Hunters. The hulking Heavy Gear was build by West Frontier engineers based on what they knew of the Hunter series. The Wild Dog, a bastardized Hunter copy created by another development team, became a prime source of spare parts to accelerate Mad Dog project.

The Mad Dog was much larger than a Hunter and featured heavy limbs filled with cumbersome actuators. The machine had no head to speak off; fearing for the pilot’s safety, the engineers had foregone the Hunter’s small turret-like “bump,” sloping the armor instead. A small sensor pod covered a ninety degree arc on the front, while two small shoulder turrets swept the side. The computer had to allocate considerate time to integrate the various sensor inputs, which often led to shut-downs and rebootings. The one redeeming piece of equipment was the top mounted rocket pod, filled with 24 heavy rockets. Because of the unusual position of the pod, the V-engine was mounted in an inverted position in the backpack. This initially caused multiple problems in the prototype as oil and other fluids kept leaking out along the drive shafts and into the generators, but the problem was solved before mass-production began.

The Mad Dog was never a huge success, primarily because of the Westerners’ relative inexperience with the Gear concept. The engineers tried to meet too many design objectives at once, and the vehicle was used both as a general trooper machine and as a fire support vehicle. The Mad Dog never fared well in actual combat trials and was never produced to appreciable numbers.

It was retired as soon as the Protectorate Army managed to get its hands on a steady supply of new Hunters for their forces. The Mad Dog did have some lasting influence on Terranovan Gear design procedures, however: its knee and ankle linkages were later echoed in such designs as the Razorback and the Bear. In fact, many Mad Dogs were later refitted with Bear lower body armor (and in some case, whole lower bodies) to keep them in the field a bit longer.

Usage

Mad Dogs were first distributed to Western army units on the Badlands front, where they were less likely to face forces from the other leagues as they were put through their paces. From the onset, they were unpopular machines, often shunned by their pilots who eyed the more functional Hunters of their Mercantile neighbors. The Mad Dog was bigger and better armored, but its speed and maneuverability left much to be desired when compared with the inflated original promises of the manufacturer.

About the only good thing the pilots appreciated was the comforting firepower of the 24 heavy rockets stored above the backpack. After only a few weeks out, almost all of the machines were disabled because of the harsh climatic conditions they were forced to endure, and the units were hastily redistributed to more forgiving climates. There were discussions, for a time, about the possibility of designing a set of air filters and cooling units that would allow deployment in the Badlands, but the project never really went anywhere. The few machines that were effectively converted for extended service in desert conditions were the work of independent technicians acting on the request of the local commanding officer.

Perhaps because the machines were unpopular, few battle tales involving the Mad Dog have survived to this day. Those that did are often much more centered on the pilots and the foot troopers that accompanied them than the machines themselves, which often are only mentioned in passing. Mad Dogs fared somewhat better in other armies. Entire units were salvaged or captured, and for a brief time the design was fielded by all major city-states before the introduction of newer machines.

The Dog series was eventually phased out of operational rosters, ending as salvaged parts or scrap metals in the many junk heaps of the Badlands dumping grounds. By the early TN 1900s, the only operational Mad Dogs still in their original configuration were found in the museums of the Western city-states. Many survived as parts of other machines, however, and for a long time it was not unusual to see a Mad Dog torso or arms on a farmer’s scratchbuilt and often-repaired Work Gear. The Mad Dog would eventually return to limited service during the war against Earth as the “R” (Revised”) version.

The Mad Dog R

The Mad Dog "R" (for revised) is perhaps one of the strangest hybrids in Terranovan military history. As even antiquated machines were pressed back into service to fight the Terran invader, entire squadrons of Mad Dogs were taken out of the scrapyards and refitted to make them combat worthy once more. They could not compare to the more modern Heavy Gear designs, but they could at least help hold onto the rear positions and fill in the ranks of the local militias. It was quickly discovered that many of the Mad Dogs could not even stand up due to micro-fractures in the metal of their leg actuators.

Rather than lose precious time repairing them, commanders order the lower body of battle damaged Bear Heavy Gears to be used to get the Dogs out in the field. Similarly, many of these machines had their wornout and cracked rocket pods replaced by two lighter units mounted side by side in an armored housing, again salvaged from other, less fortunate machines. As the casualties mounted, the machines were patched as well as possible, and it was not unusual to see a Mad Dog R sporting Bear legs and a Bear or Grizzly backpack and engine (though their upright generator configuration interfered with the operation of the rocket pod constantly, forcing the pilot to keep it in the upright firing position).

As would be expected, the greatest concentration of Mad Dog Rs were found in the Western Frontier Protectorate. Mad Dog Rs are fondly remembered by the Ninth Terranovan Lancers, an ad-hoc unit formed mostly of Protectorate army veterans that was founded in the first cycle of the War of the Alliance. Although these men and women were all well past their fighting prime, they took antiquated machines from museums and scrapyards, upgraded the computer system to (almost) modern standard and petitioned the government to be allowed to help defend their city-states. The “gray-haired demons” never faced heavy combat, being too far on the Protectorate frontier, but they did participate in a few inconsequential skirmishes. No machine was lost, and all returned home more or less unscathed after the end of the conflict.

Media

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  Original Mad Dog, frontal.

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  Original Mad Dog, profile.

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  Mad Dog R

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