MercTech: Blackjack

History:
The unfortunate victim of a defamation campaign, the 45 ton Blackjack would have its reputation ruined before it even began production, relegating it to militia duty across the Inner Sphere. Originally intended as a counter-insurgeancy mech, with flamers for use against infantry and a brace of lasers against hardened targets, the production Blackjack, and all of its later variations, instead became a fire-support mech, mounting light autocannons or heavy energy weapons in the arms to engage at enemies at range.

Virtually all the Great Houses looked down at the wrongly-slandered mech since its introduction. It wouldn't be until 3022 on the Davion world of Xhosa VII that a militia unit composed of Blackjacks would down wave after wave of Combine light mechs, exorcising its poor reputation and endearing it to the Federated Suns, who would order new variants built. While some new models would be built with new technologies after the Clan Invasion, the newly-respected mech would see an Omni-counterpart created as well.

BJ-1X:
Structure: Standard

Armor: Standard 8.5 tons

Engine: Standard 180

Top Speed: 65 kph

Gyro: Standard

Heat Sinks: 18 Single Heat Sinks

Cockpit: Standard

Equipment: 4x Medium Lasers, 4x Flamers

BJ-1:
Structure: Standard

Armor: Standard 8.5 tons

Engine: Standard 180

Top Speed: 65 kph

Gyro: Standard

Heat Sinks: 11 Single Heat Sinks

Cockpit: Standard

Equipment: 2x AC-2s w/ 1t ammo, 4x Medium Lasers, 4x Jump Jets

BJ-1DB:
Structure: Standard

Armor: Standard 7.5 tons

Engine: Standard 180

Top Speed: 65 kph

Gyro: Standard

Heat Sinks: 17 Single Heat Sinks

Cockpit: Standard

Equipment: 2x Large Lasers, 2x Medium Lasers, 4x Jump Jets

BJ-1DC:
Structure: Standard

Armor: Standard 8.5 tons

Engine: Standard 180

Top Speed: 65 kph

Gyro: Standard

Heat Sinks: 12 Single Heat Sinks

Cockpit: Standard

Equipment: 2x AC-2s w/ 1t ammo, 4x Medium Lasers, 2x Small Lasers

BJ-3:
Structure: Standard

Armor: Standard 8.5 tons

Engine: Standard 180

Top Speed: 65 kph

Gyro: Standard

Heat Sinks: 10 Double Heat Sinks

Cockpit: Standard

Equipment: 2x PPCs, 4x Medium Lasers, 4x Jump Jets