| “ | Mercenary scum, you die now! You face the Ragnarok! | ” | ||
| - Adept Strader, Worst Day Since... | ||||
The Ragnarök, commonly spelled as Ragnarok, is an assault class BattleMech created by Jerome Blake. It appears in the MechAssault series.
Background[]
The Ragnarok was created by Jerome Blake, the founder of ComStar, using technology that Blake himself had invented revolving around advanced armor systems. However, Blake soon came to fear the terrible potential of his own creations, knowing that if his Five Data Cores were ever to be misused than they could bring about an age of destruction the likes of which had never before been seen. And so as he had done to all of his creations, Blake elected to hide the two Ragarok units he had built away - along with the Armor Data Core that powered the units and contained the sum of Blake's knowledge of armor and shielding - on the obscure periphery world of Helios, hoping none would discover their resting place until such a time that mankind would be ready for the knowledge stored within the Armor Data Core. There the Ragnaroks remained secured in a hidden cache for centuries, undisturbed and forgotten, the knowledge of their existence unknown by all but a trusted few known as the Covenant.
Events of MechAssault[]
Centuries after the death of Jerome Blake, a radical sect calling themselves the Word of Blake splintered from ComStar sighting irreconcilable ideological differences in the face of ComStar's removal of religious aspects and shift away from traditional interpretations of Jerome Blake's teachings. With this schism came the breaking of the Covenant that safeguarded the knowledge of the Five Data Cores. In the following years one former member of the Covenant, Nemesis, had risen to a position of great power within the Word of Blank and sensed that the time had now come for him to act upon his ambitions to unite the Five Data Cores at last and usher in an age of military domination with the Word of Blake reigning supreme over the Inner Sphere, just as Blake had always feared his creations would bring.
In the year 3066, Nemesis dispatched a force under the command of Adept Strader to the planet of Helios to locate the hidden cache containing Jerome Blake's Ragnarok 'Mechs, and with them the first of the Five Data Cores. Unable to contend with the military dominance of the Blakists, Helios was soon conquered and the population subjected to a brutal occupation under Strader's iron fist. Strader's mission proved a success, as he located the hiding place of the Ragnarok 'Mechs and claimed one of the two as his personal BattleMech. With this find, Strader also obtained the Armor Data Core and cloned the data stored within it for Nemesis' use.
Battling the Dragoons[]
Later that same year, the Wolf's Dragoons Mercenary Group were hired to invade Helios and drive out the occupying forces, and dispathched the DropShip Icarus under the command of Major Natalia Kerensky to covertly land on the planet and pave the way for the remainder of the invasion force by destroying the orbital defense grid that the Word of Blake were in the process of constructing. However, shortly after entering Helios' atmosphere the Icarus was struck by ground fire and forced to perform a hard landing and deploy its 'Mech company immediately, resulting in the all but one of the MechWarriors being scattered far from the ship. In response to this attempted infiltration, Strader took to the battlefield personally to demonstrate the power of his new Ragnarok 'Mech, assisted by his Champion. Strader soon hunted down and destroyed the Icarus' Bravo Lance, and later located the Alpha Lance as well, electing to send a transmission to the Icarus before attacking the Dragoons so to dishearten the few remaining survivors as they witnessed their comrades deaths at Strader's hands.
Some time later in the conflict for Helios, the Wolf's Dragoons became aware of the existence of Ragnarok after the Icarus' operations officer, Lieutenant Foster, hacked into an information array. However the Dragoons remained unsure of what exactly Ragnarok was, unaware that the information stolen referenced a BattleMech. As the Dragoon invasion began in earnest, the Icarus' remaining personnel were ordered to continue conducting operations against Strader and uncover more information about Ragnarok.
Strader's Last Stand[]
As the battle on Helios turned against the World of Blake, Strader was soon forced to order a full retreat from the planet wile also setting in motion his doomsday drill, the Planetbuster, to deny the world to his enemy in a final display of defiance. However, before he could escape the planet with his treasured Ragnarok 'Mechs and the Armor Data Core, Strader was cornered within a spaceport by the Icarus' last surviving MechWarrior who quickly destroyed the DropShip that one of the Ragnarok's had been loaded on to. Enraged by the MechWarrior's repeated victories, Strader piloted his remaining Ragnarok to personally destroy the MechWarrior just as he did the Dragoon's comrades. Though Strader boasted the greatest 'Mech ever brought to bare, he was ultimately defeated and killed when his Ragnarok's reactor detonated, destroying his prized 'Mech in the process.
Destroying the Planetbuster[]
Following Strader's demise, it was discovered that the second Ragnarok 'Mech survived the destruction of Strader's DropShip, and thus the 'Mech fell into the hands of the Dragoons. In order to stop the Planetbuster and save the Dragoon invasion force and all of Helios from annihilation, the MechWarrior was ordered to pilot the Ragnarok towards the doomsday device and destroy it. Though the remaining Blakists deployed as many forces as could be found to defeat the Dragoon, with the power of the Ragnarok at his fingers he was able to tare through all the defenders that stood in his way and reached the Planetbuster. However upon reaching the drill it was soon discovered that even the Ragnarok's weapon systems were ineffective against the device, and so as a last ditch effort to stop the drill the MechWarrior maneuvered the Ragnarok into the heart of the Planetbuster and triggered the 'Mechs self-destruct sequence, with the force of the highly advanced reactor's explosion causing the drill to suffer a critical failure while the MechWarrior ejected to safety in the Ragnarok's cockpit.
Events of Lone Wolf[]
Following the recovery of the Ragnarok cockpit by the Icarus' crew, further analysis of the remains led to the discovery of the Armor Data Core stored within. Lieutenant Foster spent the next several months endeavoring to unlock the secrets of the Data Core, and incorporated its technology into his own BattleArmor.
The defeat of the Word of Blake forces on Helios and the loss of the Ragnarok 'Mechs and Armor Data Core ultimately did not impede Nemesis' progress, for having already received the cloned data from the core he no longer required the original data core or Ragnarok 'Mechs in order to begin replicating their design. Thus, from his base of Terra Nemesis went about manufacturing an army of Ragnarok Super 'Mechs for use in his conquest of the Inner Sphere.
The Supermech Army[]
The following year, the Wolf's Dragoons of the Icarus engaged in numerous battles against Nemesis' forces for control of the remaining Data Cores, culminating in an assault on Nemesis' base on Terra. As the MechWarrior breached the perimeter of Nemesis' super 'Mech factory, Nemesis ordered the first battalion of his Ragnarok 'Mechs into action to stop the Dragoon, though this proved to late as few of the Ragnarok's were able to reach the MechWarrior in time to stop him from destroying the Uber 'Mech and killing Nemesis in the process. As the MechWarrior fled from the area with assistance from Major Kerensky, one of Nemesis' former Covenant allies Alera who had been aiding the Dragoons set her JumpShip the Jezebel to speed out of orbit on a collision course with the super 'mech factory in a final desperate attempt to stop Nemesis' army from ever threatening the Inner Sphere. As the Jezebel crashed into the ground the resulting explosion completely destroyed the facility and Nemesis' entire Ragnarok army with it, putting an end to Nemesis' ambitions once and for all.
Description[]
The Ragnarok is one of the most powerful 'Mechs in the game. Several of its weapons and defensive technologies are of LosTech origin. The Ragnarök and its variant the Ymir are the only Assault Mechs that are not capable of performing an Alpha Strike. This is most likely to prevent the Ragnarök from being too overpowered in gameplay.
Weapons[]
Built using LosTechnology, the Ragnarök has weapons and defenses never before witnessed until now. The most obvious of which being its Lava Gun. The Lava Gun fires three extremely large slugs of super-heated material from the cannon mounted to the right shoulder of the 'Mech. The slugs have no tracking ability and so are not useful at long ranges (even though this is quite obvious since the projectiles explode after a certain amount of time). Also, the slugs are capable of knocking over other 'Mechs and have a large blast radius. The Ragnarök is equipped with quad Javelin missile launchers attached to just to the left of the cockpit. Finally, twin Gauss Rifles are fired from the arms of the 'Mech, also capable of knocking over other 'Mechs.
MechAssault Phantom War[]
- Mech Defense (On a scale from 1-10): 9 (Armor: 5000)
- Mech Speed (On a scale from 1-10): 5 (Speed: 19 MPH)
- Weapons: Lava Gun 3x, Gauss Rifle 2x, Javelin LRM 4x
- Defensive Weapons: LosTech defenses
- Weight: 101 Tons
- Maximum Heat: 201
- Cool Rate: 11
Trivia[]
- In MechAssault, the shield is a spherical bubble type shield while in Lone Wolf, the shield wraps around the 'Mech. Additionally, the shield in MechAssault only lasts for a few seconds but is capable of absorbing most damage while the shield in Lone Wolf lasts longer but only reduces damage.
- The shield in MechAssault gradually weakens and gets dimmer under sustained fire.
- The shield in MechAssault can absorb all damage except for lava exposure and it can only reduce the damage from another lava gun due to the lava gun causing splash damage.
- The Ragnarök/Ymir is the only 'Mech to date that has two types of weapons that are capable of knocking over other Mechs.
- There is little to no difference between the MechAssault and Lone Wolf Ragnarök models.
- In the 'Mech statistics screen in MechAssault, the Ragnarök's preview depicts it as having 4x Pulse Lasers, while in gameplay, the Mech only has the weapons described above. This technically makes it the only 'Mech to carry 4 weapons in the entire game.
- The Ragnarök and Ymir 'Mechs have less armor than the Atlas and Prometheus 'Mechs.
- The Ragnarök's arms and legs seem to be modified atlas parts.
- In the textures for the Ragnarök, The Day 1 Studios logo and Fasa Studios logo can be seen on the 'Mech
Gallery[]
Gallery
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 The Captain ejected with the Ragnarok's cockpit |
References[]
- The Ragnarok has been deduced as being created by Jerome Blake in secrecy due to being the vessel to house Blake's Armor Data Core which was hidden away in accordance with Jerome Blake's wishes. Therefore the production year of the Ragnarok, while unknown, predates Jerome Blake's death in 2780.