AS7-D Atlas for Battletech

The Atlas is probably the best-known BattleMech to ever set foot on the modern battlefield. Designed with specifications from Aleksandr Kerensky in 2755 in the midst of the Cameron Edicts, the Atlas was originally intended to ensure SLDF superiority over the Star League member states. Though the inexorable arming of the Great Houses continued, the Atlas proved itself to be everything General Kerensky requested. With the largest amount of armor of nearly any 'Mech, crippling firepower, and the foreboding skull-shaped "Death's Head" cockpit/head assembly, the Atlas lived up to its reputation. The mere sight of an Atlas had been known to make even a veteran MechWarrior break out in a cold sweat, and theoretically a single Atlas can take on and wipe out an entire battalion of Stingers in exchange for minor armor loss.

The Atlas' first combat trials came during the Amaris Civil War, where it served an instrumental role as a powerful command vehicle. Though General Kerensky is well-known for being the one who kicked down the palace doors of the Usurper in his Orion, it was his close friend Aaron DeChavilier who, in his Atlas, weathered the storm of enemy fire and breached the protective wall surrounding the complex. After this conflict it was therefore with little surprise that the General wished for all of these 'Mechs to accompany him on Operation Exodus, but ironically of those MechWarriors who refused his summons fully two-thirds were Atlas drivers. These units were spread among the Successor States and Atlas factories on Al Na'ir, Hesperus II and Quentin would continue production of the 'Mech through the Succession Wars.

Most commanders were loath to tamper too much with such a successful 'Mech, but the recovery of the Helm Memory Core resulted in a number of ancient designs being updated with lostech, and the Atlas was no exception. The new AS7-K model was released in 3049, just in time to fight off the Clan Invasion. The Federated Commonwealth also briefly began production of their own model, the AS7-S, although following the civil war that line was discontinued and further variants have been introduced by the Lyran Alliance and Draconis Combine. Despite its age, well into the end of the thirty-first century there were no plans to replace the Atlas, and even the most cutting-edge designs will stop and pause when faced with the prospect of an Atlas bearing down on them.

Model is printed in a grey resin and supplied with a base.

Mech design by Matt Mason.