Keystone, from the previous comic, standing before his mech when it's not torn to shreds.

The JR7 Jenner is a 35 ton light mech chassis, and typically carries a laser-centric weapon complement. Most variants also carry some form of missile launchers. It has a lot of armor for a light, designed to function as a combat skirmisher. Because its center torso is large, its core components are often very vulnerable to damage at any angle, and so the frame can be difficult to handle for novice pilots. Outdated and much maligned, it is now rapidly becoming a rare sight in the Inner Sphere.

Because of these drawbacks, those who pilot a Jenner anyway often do so fully understanding these risks, having found unique ways to work around these issues. This means that diehard Jenner pilots can be all the more dangerous than similarly weighted lights. The numerous upsides to this mech (higher-than-optimal weapon and armor balance, high top speed, good maneuverability, and efficient jump thruster charge) are not often found in such a potent combination in other mechs; most light mechs have some of those features, but rarely do they have all of these features in concert.

The key, then, is to mitigate the large center torso with movement, misdirection, positioning, guerilla tactics, and wild card maneuvers you won't find in training manuals; to only expose and fire when the enemy is confused, distracted, or otherwise out of position; to use its drastic top speed to reposition rapidly before the enemy can respond to a feint or flank.

Due to high G forces, turning the mech's torso while running at 140 km/h is a vomit-inducing experience without significant practice, and can even lead to pilots passing out mid-fight. To make this even worse, the cockpit is extended far away from the mech's rotational axis. This of course takes a huge toll on the pilot, and these effects cannot be feasibly emulated in a mech simulator, especially when one starts to involve jumpjet leaps. This means that using such maneuvers in combat requires thousands of hours of actual real space drilling and experience. Some pilots, like Keystone, will also use jumpjet thrusters to launch their mech shortly into the air, then rapidly torque the legs beneath the mech to face another direction. This way, when they land seconds later, their mech is already at top speed, sharply shifting inertia, juking enemies into wasting ammunition or rethinking their reactions.

The result of this great filter, then? Pilots that somehow survive the chassis for the several years necessary to be called a veteran each have a special combination of extreme luck, tactical understanding, knowledge of their vehicle, and most importantly... endurance. This is true of most mechwarriors, naturally. But the ratio of dead rookie Jenner pilots for every successful live ace is absolutely obscene by comparison to other battlemechs, and that ratio is certainly high enough to deter rookies away from the Jenner.

For those who stay, though... well... let's just say the required combination of insanity and tactical acumen makes pilots of larger mechs very, very concerned and cautious around one of these guys. It is wise, after all, to fear the man who grows old where others often die young.



Dictated notes excerpt from Lead Lech Rhianna Kiranov:

f---ing key, puke all on the foot deck again AGAIN
Astech Bruin front and center, interior detail again it's a mess
Don't talk back I'm not getting it on my cybernetics anymore f--- that i'll be welding soon
notepad, add note: low nitrile gloves for astechs replace soon Allcaps stop forgetting
Bruin don't, okay get out if you're feeling sick
fine don't make it worse, go braze the life support hvac line, I'll do it fine
no s--- it's bad, it gets above 50 degrees in there when he's dueling
what do you think happens when it gets hot Bruin now get out go
god, where does the colonel find these guys, a Galatean bar probably
um. oh my god.
why is it always in the left footwell
that's your emergency hatch dumbass we talked about this
WHY IS IT ALWAYS LEFT
WHY IS IT ALWAYS GOD DAMN LEFT